DOMESTIC  LIFE  IN 
SCOTLAND,  1488-1688 


JOHN  WARRAC1 


DOMESTIC  LIFE  IN  SCOTLAND 


PLATE  1 


DOMESTIC    LIFE    IN 
SCOTLAND,  1488-1688 

A  SKETCH  OF  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF 
FURNITURE  AND  HOUSEHOLD  USAGE 

(Rhind  Lectures  in  Archaeology,  1919-20) 

BY 

JOHN   WARRAGK 


WITH    SIXTEEN    ILLUSTRATIONS 


NEW  YORK 

E.   P.    DUTTON    AND    COMPANY 
PUBLISHERS 


PREFACE 

FEW  realise  how  modern  are  the  con- 
ceptions of  comfort  and  decency  which 
inspire  the  furnishing  and  arrangements 
of  our  present-day  homes,  or  how  different 
were  the  conditions  in  which,  only  a  few  cen- 
turies ago,  our  forefathers  spent  their  lives. 
Till  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century 
chairs  for  ordinary  household  use  were  un- 
known. Hats  were  worn  at  meals.  Washing 
formed  no  part  of  the  morning  toilet,  even  in 
Charles  IPs  time,  and  very  few  in  any  country 
in  Europe  washed  their  faces  every  day.  The 
use  of  forks  did  not  become  general  till  the 
eighteenth  century,  and  food  was  picked  from 
the  general  dish  and  raised  to  the  mouth  with 
the  ringers. 

The  development  of  Domestic  Life  has  not, 
I  think,  hitherto  been  studied  as  a  continuous 
process,  nor  traced  to  its  social  and  historical 
origins,  though  many  of  its  details  have  been 
worked  out  and  much  knowledge  of  a  frag- 
mentary kind  has  been  accumulated.  In 
trying  to  reconstruct  the  domestic  life  of 
Scotland  at  various  epochs  in  the  fifteenth, 
sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries,  and  to 
trace  the  lines  of  development,  I  have  had 


2039745 


vi        DOMESTIC   LIFE   IN  SCOTLAND 

recourse  to  the  comparison  and  analysis  of 
many  hundreds  of  early  inventories  which  are 
to  be  found  among  the  national  documents 
preserved  in  the  Register  House,  and  the  study 
of  these  records  has  resulted  in  much  new  and 
curious  information  as  to  the  details  of  house- 
hold life  in  early  times.  I  have  also  drawn 
freely  on  early  Scottish  literature,  including 
biographies,  journals  and  account  books,  for 
material  likely  to  put  my  readers  into  more 
living  touch  with  the  men,  women  and  children 
of  the  times  with  which  I  have  dealt. 

While  the  book  deals  mainly  with  Scotland, 
there  are  many  references  to  the  social  develop- 
ment of  England,  France  and  other  countries 
in  western  Europe.  For  a  general  enquiry  there 
is  a  certain  advantage  in  the  smaller  and  less 
crowded  stage.  To  the  non- Scottish  reader  I 
would  address  the  invitation  and  guarantee  given 
by  a  character  in  a  witty  French  comedy  : — 

Mon  camarade 

Aliens  faire  au  jardin  un  tour  de  promenade  ! 
Suivez-moi  sans  rien  craindre ;  il  est  dans  mes  principes 
De  ne  forcer  personne  &  louer  nos  tulipes ! 

To  express  in  detail  all  my  obligations  to 
those  who  have  helped  me  would  overweight 
my  book.  But  I  must  acknowledge  the  kind- 
ness of  Sir  James  Balfour  Paul,  C.V.O.,  in 
reading  my  proofs  ;  of  Mr.  F.  C.  Eeles  in 
advising  me  as  to  the  contents  of  the  Oratory 
in  the  second  Lecture ;  of  Prof.  Hannay  and 
Dr.  Hay  Fleming  ;  and  of  Dr.  Thomas  Ross, 
Dr.  William  Kelly,  A.R.S.A.,  Aberdeen,  and 


PREFACE  vii 

Mr.  James  Beveridge,  Linlithgow.  My  best 
thanks  are  also  due  to  those  who  have  allowed 
me  to  reproduce  articles  in  their  possession 
among  my  illustrations. 

13  ROTHESAY  TERRACE 
EDINBURGH 


CONTENTS 

LECTURE  I 
IN  FEUDAL  DAYS  :    A  MEDIAEVAL  CASTLE 

THE   FIFTEENTH   CENTURY 

Poverty  of  the  country — Unsettled  conditions — 
Scarcity  of  native  timber — Foreign  trade  :  ex- 
ports and  imports — Inferences  as  to  social  condi- 
tions in  Scotland  and  in  Flanders — Value  of 
knowledge  of  early  social  life  in  interpreting 
early  literature — The  mediaeval  castle  and  its 
furnishings — An  evening  meal — Washing  the 
hands — Early  codes  of  manners  and  rules  for 
behaviour — Table  arrangements — The  salt-fatt, 
dishes,  spoons,  and  serviotts— Arrangements  and 
furnishing  of  the  hall — "  Till  necessitie  and  nocht 
til  decore  " — The  dais — The  hie  burde — Literary 
references  —  The  parelling  —  The  comptar  or 
counter  :  origin  and  line  of  development — The 
chalmer  of  des  :  its  position  and  uses — Bed- 
rooms— Beds  and  canopies — The  futegang 

pages  1-31 


x         DOMESTIC  LIFE  IN   SCOTLAND 

LECTURE  II 

THE  WEALTH  OF  THE  CHURCH  :  A  PRE-REFORMA- 
TION  MANSE 

THE   SIXTEENTH   CENTURY 

The  wealth  of  the  Church  as  a  factor  in  the  Reforma- 
tion movement — Relation  of  the  movement  to  the 
Renaissance — Humanism  within  the  Church — 
The  Parson  of  Stobo  ;  his  revenues,  etc. — The 
manse  in  Glasgow  and  its  inmates — A  dis- 
appointed nephew — The  parson's  bedchamber — 
Rich  hangings  and  furniture — An  unexpected 
apparition — Coffers  and  chests  and  their  contents 
— Early  regulations  as  to  clerical  costume — The 
parson's  costly  apparel — "  The  oratour  within 
his  hous  " — The  altar  and  its  furnishings — Vest- 
ments— Sacred  and  secular  books — The  hall — 
Carved  furniture — Cupboard  of  plate — Signifi- 
cance of  plate  in  mediaeval  times — The  kitchen — 
"  Large  tabling  and  belly  cheer  " — Stores  of  pro- 
visions and  fuel — Riding  kit  and  armour — Sport 
and  recreations — Tame  animals — An  early  chim- 
ing clock — The  parson's  death — The  people  and 
the  Church  .....  pages  32-62 

LECTURE  III 

THE  RISE  OF  THE  BURGHERS  ;    A  CLOTH  MER- 
CHANT'S HOUSE  ;    AND  SOME  DECORATIVE  ARTS 

THE   SIXTEENTH   CENTURY — Continued 

The  three  estates — Rising  importance  of  the  burgher 
class — Dwelling-house  of  a  sixteenth-century 
cloth  merchant — The  hall — Armour — The  bed- 
chamber— Agricultural  implements — The  booth 
— "  Ane  hingand  brod  of  oley  cullouris " — 


CONTENTS  xi 

Early  interest  in  painting  in  Scotland — Pictures 
and  painted  cloths — The  burgesses  as  art  patrons 
and  introducers  of  foreign  products  and  ideas — 
The  "  keiking  glass  " — The  alarm  clock — Some 
items  in  the  inventory  of  Sir  David  Lyndsay 
of  the  Mount — Wood-carving  in  Scotland — 
Domestic  panelling — Linenfold  and  other  pat- 
terns— Carved  wood  from  Montrose — At  Ethie 
Castle — From  Threave  Castle — Cardinal  Beaton's 
panels  at  Balfour  House — Embroidery  in  early 
times — Its  development  in  the  sixteenth  century 
— Queen  Mary's  embroideries — "  Story  work  " — 
Various  examples — The  Rehoboam  set — The 
Earl  of  Morton's  set — Probable  date  and  origin 

pages  63-97 

LECTURE  IV 

THE  DECAY  OF  FEUDALISM  AND  THE  DEVELOP- 
MENT OF  FAMILY  LIFE 

JAMES    VI,     1578-1625 

New  conceptions  of  domestic  life — Historical  origins 
of  the  change — Passing  away  of  feudalism — Ex- 
pansion of  trade  and  increasing  importance  of 
the  towns — Enrichment  of  the  nobles  by  partition 
of  Church  property — An  era  of  building — Domes- 
tic character  of  the  new  architecture — Feudal 
lords  transformed  into  courtiers,  with  luxurious 
standards  of  living — Changes  in  domestic  arrange- 
ments— The  hall  gives  place  to  the  dining-room 
— The  "  Dravand  Buird  " — Table  manners  at 
Court  and  in  private  life — Table  ware,  etc. — 
Display  of  plate — Cupboards  with  "  gries  " — 
The  dresser — Dessert  and  the  banquet — The 
parlour  —  Stuffed  chairs  —  The  taffel  —  Books  : 
the  Family  Bible  —  Pictures  —  Music  —  Life  of 
the  leisured  classes — Men's  employments  and 


xii       DOMESTIC  LIFE   IN  SCOTLAND 

recreations — How  a  lady  of  fashion  spent  her 
day — Dietetic  dangers  and  some  medical  counsels 
— Children's  toys — A  boy's  penknife — Duncan's 
new  doublet  ....  v  pages  98-134 


LECTURE  V 
THE  KING  OR  THE  COVENANT 

CHARLES    I,    1625-1649 

The  Covenanting  Period — Ascetic  views  of  life — A 
Covenanter's  courtship,  with  an  eighteenth-cen- 
tury contrast — Conditions  unfavourable  to  the 
development  of  furniture — New  Scottish  indus- 
tries— Furniture  and  fashions  from  London — 
A  Scottish  nobleman's  house — "  The  laiche  hall  " 
— The  dining-room  and  silver  plate — The  draw- 
ing-room— New  ideas  in  furniture  and  ornaments 
— The  lettermeitt  house — Bedrooms — Develop- 
ment of  beds  in  Scotland — The  knop  sek — The 
strek  bed — The  letacamp  bed — Kaissit  beds — 
The  box-bed  or  buistie — The  "  laych-rynnand  " 
or  truckle  bed — The  laird's  mistake — The  four- 
poster — Royal  beds — Devices  on  the  Queen  of 
Scots'  bed — Mourning  beds  and  mourning  cus- 
toms— Queen  Mary's  bed-curtains  from  Loch 
Leven — Heraldic  decoration  of  beds — Changing 
fashions  in  colours  and  colour  names  .  .  135-172 

LECTURE  VI 
THE  COMMONWEALTH  AND  THE  RESTORATION 

1649-1688 

The  restoration  of  the  Monarchy — Irreconcilable 
differences — Organised  and  harmonious  national 
life  impossible — Persecutions — The  Acts  of  Indul- 
gence— Inducements  to  accept  the  established 


CONTENTS  xiii 

regime — History  of  the  times  reflected  in  furni- 
ture— Severe  and  utilitarian  character  of  Com- 
monwealth furniture — Restoration  chairs  and 
day-beds — Chairs  as  evidences  of  changes  in  the 
treatment  of  floors — Easy  chairs — Extravagance 
of  the  Court — Exotic  materials — Cabinets — The 
chest  of  drawers — Tea,  coffee  and  cocoa — Walnut 
tables — The  virginalls — Barred  grates — Forks  not 
yet  in  use — Scottish  diarists — Social  life  of  the 
time — Billiards — Horse  racing — The  kirk  stool — 
Going  to  church — Giving  out  the  line — The  hour- 
glass— Periwigs,  powder  and  Sedan  chairs,  as 
preluding  the  eighteenth  century — Conclusion 

pages  173-206 

INDEX       .         .         .         .         .         .         .         .207-213 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

I.     Bedroom  of    Mary  Queen  of    Scots   (temp. 

James  VII).    Holyrood  Palace         FRONTISPIECE 

FACING    PAGE 

II.     Oak  Chair  (fifteenth  century).     In  Trinity 

Hall,  Aberdeen    .         .         .         .         .12 

III.  Tapestry  Panel  (fifteenth  century)  showing 

children's    games.       (Property    of    W. 
Burrell,  Esq.)       .          .          .          .          .14 

IV.  Carved  Oak  Panels  from  Montrose.     (Pro- 

perty of  P.  W.  Campbell,  Esq.,  W.S.)    .       78 
V.     Carved  Oak  Panels  in  Balfour  House,  Nos.  i 

and  2  .          .          .          .          .          .          .80 

VI.     Carved  Oak  Panels  in  Balfour  House,  Nos.  3 
and  4.    (Property  of  Capt.  C.  B.  Balfour, 
of  Newton  Don.)          ....       82 

VII.     Needlework  Panel  by  Mary  Queen  of  Scots. 
Hardwick  Hall.    (Property  of  the  Duke 
of  Devonshire.)   .....       88 

VIII.     Needlework  Panel  (c.  1580)  from  Dalmahoy. 

(Property  of  the  Earl  of  Morton.)    .          .       92 
IX.     "  Ane  Drawand  Buird,"  or  Extending  Table. 

(Property  of  the  Earl  of  Home.)     .          .108 
X.     Indented  Aumrie,  known  as  "  Queen  Anna's 
Press."     (Property  of  Sir  John  Sterling 
Maxwell,  Bart.)    .          .          .          .          .120 

XI.     "  Paire  of  Organis  "  (fifteenth  century)  from 
Triptych  by  Van  der  Goes  at  Holyrood 
Palace         ......     124 

XII.     Bed-Curtains  from  Loch  Leven.     (Property 

of  Sir  Charles  Bruce,  of  Arnot.)_    .          .170 


LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS  xv 

XIII.  Crown  Chairs  :     (a)   (Property  of  Sir   John 

Stirling  Maxwell,   Bart.)      (b)  With 

Thistle  decoration.     Holyrood  Palace     .     178 

XIV.  Sleeping  Chair.     Holyrood  Palace       .          .     182 
XV.     Cabinet  (Charles  II)  at  Lennoxlove.     (Pro- 
perty of  Major  W.  A.  Baird.)  .         .     186 

XVI.     Virginals    (Charles   II).     (Property  of  Miss 

Simpson,  Edinburgh.)  .          .          .          .190 

NOTE. — The  Illustrations  from  Holyrood  are  by  permission 
of  the  King,  to  whom  the  copyright  belongs. 


DOMESTIC   LIFE   IN    SCOTLAND 

1488-1688 

LECTURE   I 
IN  FEUDAL  DAYS:  A  MEDIEVAL  CASTLE 

THE   FIFTEENTH   CENTURY 

Poverty  of  the  country — Unsettled  conditions — Scarcity 
of  native  timber — Foreign  trade  :  exports  and  imports — 
Inferences  as  to  social  conditions  in  Scotland  and  in  Flan- 
ders— Value  of  knowledge  of  early  social  life  in  interpreting 
early  literature — The  mediaeval  castle  and  its  furnishings — 
An  evening  meal — Washing  the  hands — Early  codes  of 
manners  and  rules  for  behaviour — Table  arrangements— 
The  salt-fatt,  dishes,  spoons,  and  serviotts — Arrangements 
and  furnishing  of  the  hall — •"  Till  necessitie  and  nocht  til 
decore  " — The  dais — The  hie  burde — Literary  references — 
The  parelling — The  comptar  or  counter  :  origin  and  line  of 
development — The  chalmer  of  des  :  its  position  and  uses — 
Bedrooms — Beds  and  canopies — The  futegang. 

IF,  among  the  nations  of  Europe,  Scotland 
has    played    but    a    humble    part    in    the 
development   of  design    in  furniture,   the 
facts  of  nature  and  of  history  at  least  supply 
a   simple   explanation.     A   high   standard   of 
domestic  comfort  is  the  outcome  of  a  long 
experience    of    national    prosperity,    and    the 
sure  index  of  a  well  established  social  order. 
Now  it  is  true  that,   in  intellectual  culture, 
Scotland  had  reached  even  in  mediaeval  times 


2          DOMESTIC   LIFE   IN  SCOTLAND 

a  level  which,  considering  her  scattered  popula- 
tion and  her  meagre  opportunities,  is  remark- 
able. But  if  her  reputation  in  letters  was 
secure,  so  alas  was  her  poverty  proverbial. 
"  What  could  have  brought  us  hither  ?  " 
asked  the  French  knights  who,  as  Froissart 
tells  us,  had  come  over  in  1385  to  march  against 
England  ;  "  we  have  never  known  till  now  what 
was  meant  by  poverty  and  hard  living  !  "  It 
would  be  easy  to  collect  similar  testimonies 
from  those  who  have  left  records  of  their 
journeyings  in  Scotland,  but  the  task  would 
be  both  dismal  and  unnecessary.  Some  of 
these  writers  speak  of  the  Scots  with  kindliness, 
some  with  contempt ;  but  there  is  hardly  one 
among  them  who  has  not  recorded  some  im- 
pression of  the  poverty  of  the  country.  Some 
hundreds  of  years  ago  it  was  a  current  jibe  in 
France  that  when  the  Devil  led  our  Lord  into 
a  high  mountain  and  showed  him  all  the  king- 
doms of  the  earth  and  the  glory  thereof,  he 
thought  it  discreet  to  make  one  reservation. 
He  "  keipit  his  meikle  thoomb  on  Scotland." 
But  besides  being  a  poor  country,  Scotland 
was  also  a  singularly  unsettled  one.  By  a 
misfortune  of  geography  it  was  her  richest 
provinces  that  lay  exposed  to  the  devastating 
raids  from  the  English  border.  History  too 
brought  her  mischances.  The  long  series  of 
regencies  during  the  minorities  of  the  Jameses 


IN   FEUDAL   DAYS  8 

gave  rise  to  bitter  jealousies  and  family  feuds 
among  the  nobles  ;  and  from  the  consequences 
of  these  factions  and  the  social  anarchy  they 
brought  in  their  train,  not  even  the  most  peace- 
able country  folk  could  count  themselves  secure. 
"  Sum  time,"  says  Lyndsay  of  the  Mount  : 

Sum  time  the  realme  was  reulit  be  Regentis, 
Sum  time  lufetenantis,  ledaris  of  the  law  ; 
Than  rang  sa  mony  inobedientis 
That  few  or  nane  stude  of  ane  other  aw  ; 
Oppression  did  sa  lowd  hys  bugle  blaw 
That  nane  durst  ride  bot  into  feir  of  weir  ; 
Jok-upon-land  that  time  did  mis  his  meir." 

This  is  no  fancy  picture.  Jok-upon-land,  the 
decent  peasant  extorting  a  precarious  living 
from  an  unkindly  soil,  was  but  too  often  a 
sufferer  from  the  violence  of  the  times.  The 
records  of  actions  for  restoration  of  "  spuilzie  " 
not  only  tell  us  of  such  lawless  deeds  done  by 
one  noble  to  another,  but  they  are  full  of  petty 
and  ruthless  damage  done  to  poor  people  who 
had  little  to  lose.  We  read  of  attacks  on  richly 
furnished  houses,  and  we  have  but  to  turn  the 
page  to  find  some  poor  Jok-upon-land  com- 
plaining of  "  scaitht  to  his  horse,"  another 
bent  on  recovering  "  auchteen  pence  takyn 
furth  of  hys  purs,"  and  a  third  claiming  a  still 
smaller  sum  for  "  hys  wyfis  hois  and  schone  "  ; 
while  the  august  pages  of  the  Ada  Dominorum 
Concilii  have  embalmed  for  us  the  memory  of 
"  ane  callit  Cutsy,"  of  whom  only  this  has 


4          DOMESTIC  LIFE   IN  SCOTLAND 

come  down  to  us,  that  in  a  bitter  hour  four 
hundred  and  thirty  years  ago,  he,  or  possibly 
she,  suffered  the  "  wrangous,  violent  and 
maisterful  spoliatioun  of  twa  sarkis." 

To  us  these  acts  of  oppression  bring  this 
compensation,  that  as  the  law  required  that  the 
pursuer  in  an  action  for  restitution  should  set 
forth  under  oath  "  the  avail  and  quantitie  of 
the  gudis,"  we  have  a  series  of  documents 
giving  details  and  valuations  of  household  gear 
in  early  times,  of  which  we  should  otherwise 
have  had  but  scanty  record.  Yet  we  cannot  but 
realise  as  we  read  them,  what  tragedies  of 
domestic  life  they  describe,  tragedies  none  the 
less  moving  that  their  scale  is  sometimes  so 
pitifully  small.  They  bring  home  to  us  that, 
for  rich  and  poor  alike,  life  was  at  the  mercy  of 
shocks  and  dislocations  of  every  kind.  Neither 
for  life  nor  for  property  was  there  any  security. 
And  we  must  acknowledge  that,  in  conditions 
so  unsettled,  it  was  hardly  possible  that  there 
should  be  any  equable  and  progressive  develop- 
ment of  the  arts  of  peace. 

Even  if  conditions  had,  however,  been  other- 
wise more  favourable,  Scotland  would  still  have 
been  at  a  disadvantage  in  the  matter  of  furniture 
owing  to  her  comparative  dearth  of  fine  timber. 
Not  that  Scotland  was  the  treeless  waste  that 
some  would  have  us  believe.  There  was  a  fair 
amount  of  oak  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Inver- 


IN   FEUDAL   DAYS  5 

ness,  as  we  know  from  the  early  records  of  that 
town,  while  the  forest  of  Badenoch  produced 
quantities  of  fir  trees.  Artillery  wheels  for  the 
raid  of  Norham  were  made  in  Melrose  wood  ; 
timber  was  got  at  the  same  time  from  Clydes- 
dale and  the  wood  of  Cockpen  ;  while  James  IV 
used  to  send  messengers  to  the  Forest  of  Tern- 
way,  or  Darnaway,  in  Morayshire,  to  "  ger  fell 
tymmir  "  there.  We  have  particulars,  too,  of 
timber  felled  at  Luss,  and  elsewhere  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  Loch  Lomond,  in  connection 
with  the  King's  barge,  built  at  Dumbarton  in 
1494.  Still,  the  visitor  who  had  passed  through 
England  could  not  but  be  struck  with  the 
comparative  scarcity  of  trees  in  Scotland  ;  and 
though  Nicander  Nucius,  writing  in  1545, 
states  that  the  whole  island  abounds  with 
marshes  and  well-timbered  oak  forests,  it  is 
questionable  whether  his  journey  actually  ex- 
tended to  Scotland.  We  know  that,  as  a  matter 
of  fact,  Scotland  depended  mainly  on  her  im- 
ports of  "  eastland  burdis  "  from  the  Baltic  ; 
and  it  is  safe  to  conclude  that  Scotland  was 
poorly  supplied  with  timber,  though  not  to  the 
extent  suggested  by  Sir  Anthony  Weldon  when 
he  said  that  "  had  Christ  been  betrayed  in  this 
country,  Judas  had  sooner  found  the  grace  of 
repentance  than  a  tree  to  hang  himself  on." 

But  any  preliminary  survey  of  the  conditions 
affecting  Scottish  domestic  life  and  its  equip- 


ment  would  be  incomplete  and  wholly  mis- 
leading if  it  did  not  look  beyond  the  boundaries 
of  the  country  itself.  Even  in  mediaeval  times 
Scotland  cannot  be  considered  as  existing  "  in 
vacuo,"  or  as  insulated  from  foreign  contacts. 
We  must  have  some  idea  of  how  social  condi- 
tions in  Scotland  compared  with  those  ruling 
elsewhere,  and  particularly  in  those  countries 
with  which  she  had  intimate  relations  ;  and  we 
must  know  something  of  the  channels  through 
which  the  influences  of  countries  with  a  more 
highly  organised  social  and  domestic  life  were 
conveyed  to  her.  Even  in  England  the  standard 
of  domestic  comfort  was,  up  to  the  end  of  the 
fifteenth  century,  much  lower  than  in  the  prin- 
cipal countries  on  the  continent  of  Europe. 
Indeed,  even  fifty  years  later,  the  Spaniards 
are  said  to  have  remarked,  "  These  English 
have  their  houses  made  of  sticks  and  dirt,  but 
they  fare  commonly  so  well  as  the  King."  In 
the  last  quarter  of  the  fifteenth  century,  how- 
ever, there  was  a  clear  advance  towards  comfort 
and  elegance  in  house  equipment,  and  furniture 
of  some  artistic  pretension  began  to  be  intro- 
duced. For  guidance  in  such  matters  England 
naturally  looked  to  France  and  Flanders,  and 
there  was,  in  fact,  little  important  furniture  in 
England  which  was  not  either  of  foreign  origin 
or  at  least  of  foreign  inspiration.  It  need 
hardly  be  said  that  Scotland,  with  her  smaller 


IN  FEUDAL  DAYS  7 

population,  her  poorer  communities  and  her 
ruder  material  civilisation,  was  even  more 
dependent  on  her  contact  with  foreign  coun- 
tries for  an  advancing  standard  of  domestic 
comfort  and  artistic  seemliness.  Fortunately 
we  have,  in  the  Ledger  of  Andrew  Halyburton, 
an  authoritative  document  as  to  Scottish  trade 
with  the  Netherlands  in  the  closing  years  of  the 
fifteenth  century.  Halyburton  was  an  enter- 
prising Scottish  commission  merchant,  estab- 
lished at  Middelburg,  and  doing  business  also 
at  Bruges,  Antwerp  and  elsewhere  ;  and  his 
clientele  included  many  leading  churchmen 
and  laymen  in  Scotland,  as  well  as  many  of  the 
tradesmen  who  supplied  goods  to  the  Royal 
Household.  An  examination  of  his  Ledger 
shows  that  the  exports  from  Scotland  consisted 
almost  entirely  of  unmanufactured  products  ; 
a  few  bales  of  Scottish  cloth  seem  to  be  the  only 
exception.  The  bulk  of  the  trade  is  in  skins, 
wool  and  fish,  and  even  these  do  not  always 
arrive  in  creditable  condition.  It  must  be 
confessed  that  the  exports  give  a  disappointing 
picture  of  the  productiveness  and  industry  of 
the  country,  and  we  have  to  correct  this  im- 
pression by  reminding  ourselves  that  most  of 
the  necessaries  and  some  of  the  luxuries  for 
home  consumption  were  produced  by  native 
industry. 
The  imports  from  Flanders  are  much  more 


8         DOMESTIC   LIFE   IN  SCOTLAND 

various  and  interesting,  and  they  may  be  ex- 
amined in  more  detail  because  of  the  light 
they  throw  on  the  social  life  of  the  time.  We 
are  struck  at  once,  for  instance,  with  the  large 
proportion  of  dress  materials,  velvets  and 
damasks,  silks  and  satins,  as  well  as  humbler 
stuffs  such  as  "  ryssillis  cloth,"  buckram  and 
fustian.  At  first  sight  this  seems  inconsistent 
with  the  idea  of  Scotland's  poverty  ;  but  we 
may  recall  Pedro  de  Ayala's  contemporaneous 
statement  that  the  people  of  Scotland  spent 
all  they  had  to  keep  up  appearances,  and  were 
as  well  dressed  as  it  was  possible  to  be  in  such 
a  country.  It  must  be  kept  in  mind  too  that  a 
mediaeval  conception  of  society  regulated  the 
laws  of  costume  ;  and  the  demand  for  costly 
materials  is  to  some  extent  explained  by  the 
fact  that  they  had  a  definite  significance  in 
announcing  the  rank  and  social  importance  of 
the  wearer. 

Next  to  the  trade  in  dress  materials  comes 
that  in  groceries,  spices  and  wines,  and  the 
variety  of  these  shows  a  rather  more  luxurious 
standard  of  living  than  we  might  have  expected. 
There  was,  for  instance,  a  demand  for  olives,  as 
well  as  for  figs,  almonds,  raisins  and  dates,  and 
for  spices  and  confections  of  many  kinds  ;  while 
there  are  frequent  puncheons  of  "  claret  Gas- 
chcro,"  "  Mawvyssie  "  and  other  wines,  includ- 
ing some  from  the  Rhine.  Next  may  be  men- 


IN  FEUDAL  DAYS  9 

tioned  the  trade  in  church  and  domestic  fur- 
nishings, a  trade  which  considerably  increased 
in  the  following  century,  but  was  meanwhile  of 
no  great  volume.  To  its  details  I  must  return 
later.  Another  interesting  import  consists  of 
illuminated  books,  chiefly  porteuses  and  brev- 
iaries, and  there  are  occasional  shipments  of  a 
ream  or  half  ream  of  paper.  It  will  be  noticed 
that  in  all  that  has  been  enumerated  there  is 
little  that  is  not  destined  for  immediate  use. 
If  we  look  for  materials  for  work  to  be  done  in 
Scotland,  we  find  little  beyond  madder,  for 
dyeing ;  some  iron,  for  smith-work  ;  gun- 
powder, carts  and  wheelbarrows  for  quarrying 
and  building  ;  white  and  red  lead  and  vermilion, 
and  gold  and  silver  foil,  probably  for  decoration 
of  churches  and  other  buildings  ;  and  sewing 
silks  for  embroidery. 

Now  consider  for  a  moment  what  is  implied 
in  the  contrast  between  the  exports  from  Scot- 
land and  the  imports  from  Flanders.  Scotland, 
as  we  have  seen,  exported  practically  nothing 
but  fish,  wool  and  skins — fish  speared  or  netted 
in  her  lochs  and  rivers  and  estuaries  ;  wool 
sheared  from  the  sheep  on  her  hillsides  and 
lowland  pastures  ;  skins  of  animals  shot  or 
snared  in  her  mountains  or  forests.  Thus  the 
whole  outward  foreign  trade  of  Scotland  was 
based,  not  on  the  organised  industry  of  c  n- 
munities  of  skilled  craftsmen  and  workers,  but 


10        DOMESTIC   LIFE  IN  SCOTLAND 

on  the  primeval  callings  of  the  fisherman,  the 
shepherd  and  the  huntsman  !  In  how  different 
a  social  atmosphere  such  a  country  must  have 
lived  from  that  of  one  able  to  send  out 
immense  quantities  of  tapestries,  carved  furni- 
ture, vessels  of  silver  and  gold,  and  fruits, 
spices  and  wines,  to  every  part  of  Europe.  We 
must,  of  course,  make  a  fair  allowance  for  the 
fact  that  the  Netherlands  was  a  clearing-house 
for  European  and  extra- European  trade.  It  is 
something  that  Scotland  was  even  importing 
such  artistic  and  other  luxuries  as  Flanders 
was  able  to  supply  ;  and  it  is  at  least  a  tribute 
to  Scottish  enterprise  that  these  imports  were 
brought  in  Scottish  vessels,  commanded  and 
manned  by  Scotsmen.  But  it  can  readily  be 
seen  that  very  little  furniture,  unless  of  a  rough 
and  merely  serviceable  kind,  was  likely  to  be 
made  in  Scotland,  and  that  anything  appealing 
to  a  more  sophisticated  taste  would  be  intro- 
duced from  countries  having  a  more  highly 
developed  standard  of  design  and  workman- 
ship. This  further  lesson  may  be  drawn  from 
the  facts  we  have  been  reviewing,  that  it  would 
be  misleading  to  transfer  to  Scotland  any 
general  picture  of  mediaeval  life  which  we  may 
have  formed  from  accounts  based  on  conditions 
elsewhere.  Such  accounts  are  usually  drawn 
from  the  literature  of  countries  with  a 
wealthy  and  elaborate  civilisation  ;  from 


IN  FEUDAL  DAYS  11 

illuminated  manuscripts,  highly  coloured 
fabliaux,  and  finely  wrought  interiors  by 
primitif  painters,  and  they  are  apt  to  con- 
vey an  impression  that  is  overcharged  and, 
in  its  total  effect,  untrue,  even  of  life  in 
those  favoured  lands.  It  would  be  unreason- 
able to  expect  to  find  in  Scotland — a  country  so 
poor,  so  unsettled  and  so  isolated — any  such 
development  of  the  material  setting  of  social 
life  as  existed  in  Italy,  with  her  splendid  artistic 
traditions  ;  in  Flanders,  with  her  world-wide 
commerce  ;  or  in  France,  with  her  natural 
taste  and  the  luxury  of  her  brilliant  court. 

Of  Scottish  Furniture  of  the  fifteenth  century 
little  or  nothing  remains  ;  nor  have  we  any 
contemporary  illustration  to  turn  to  for  informa- 
tion. But  just  because,  in  the  absence  of  such 
material,  the  subject  has  been  neglected,  it  is 
worth  while  to  collect  such  knowledge  as  we 
can  derive  from  literary  and  documentary 
sources  and  to  form  an  idea  of  mediaeval 
practice  in  house-furnishing,  and  of  the  social 
usages  on  which  it  was  founded.  Early 
Scottish  poetry  is  full  of  allusions  to  the 
arrangements  of  domestic  life,  and  unless  we 
have  some  acquaintance  with  these  arrange- 
ments the  allusions  must  remain  obscure, 
instead  of  casting  a  homely  light  on  the  poet's 
thought.  It  is  the  more  necessary  because, 
while  the  mediaeval  tradition  persisted  during 


12        DOMESTIC   LIFE  IN   SCOTLAND 

the  changes  of  the  sixteenth  century,  it  dis- 
appeared altogether  in  the  beginning  of  the 
seventeenth,  and  the  very  words  used  to 
describe  once-familiar  pieces  of  furniture  and 
traditional  domestic  arrangements  either  ac- 
quired a  new  meaning  or  dropped  completely 
out  of  the  language.  It  was  not  till  two  hundred 
years  later,  during  the  Romantic  Revival  which 
originated,  I  suppose,  with  Hora.ce  Walpole 
and  which  led  up  to  Sir  Walter  Scott,  that 
there  was  a  movement  to  recover  a  knowledge 
of  mediaeval  customs  and  to  exhume  the  lost 
vocabulary.  As  we  shall  see,  the  editors  who 
at  that  time  reprinted  early  Scottish  poems  were 
often  puzzled  by  words  and  allusions  which 
would  have  been  intelligible  had  they  known 
more  of  mediaeval  life,  and  they  were  too  apt 
to  tamper  light-heartedly  with  the  text,  so 
that  they  sometimes  introduced  astonishing 
anachronisms.  Even  the  pronunciation  of  for- 
gotten words  was  a  matter  of  mere  guesswork, 
and  the  word  "  dais,"  which  we  pronounce 
to-day  in  two  syllables,  is  an  instance  of  such 
ignorance.  In  early  times  in  this  country  it 
was  a  monosyllable,  as  it  still  is  in  France. 

Let  us  see,  therefore,  what  was  the  actual  fur- 
nishing of  a  Scottish  Castle  in  the  latter  part  of 
the  fifteenth  century.  Arriving  at  one  of  these 
strongholds  in  the  dusk  of  a  winter  afternoon, 


PLATE  II 


jv.-.;^. 


OAK  CHAIR  (FIFTEENTH  CENTURY)  IN  TRINITY  MALI.    ABERDEEN 


IN   FEUDAL   DAYS  13 

we  are  led  up  the  winding  stone  staircase  by  a 
retainer  swinging  a  horn  lantern.  On  the  first 
floor  is  the  great  hall,  an  apartment  some 
thirty  feet  long,  or  more,  in  which  the  evening 
meal  is  about  to  be  served.  On  one  side  a  great 
fire  of  turf  and  peat  burns  in  the  wide  fireplace, 
where  there  is,  of  course,  no  barred  grate,  and 
casts  a  ruddy  glow  through  the  room.  A  lad 
stands  holding  a  metal  basin,  and  the  guests  wash 
in  turn,  water  from  a  laver  or  ewer  being  poured 
over  their  hands  by  another  servant.  A  long 
narrow  table  is  set  across  one  end  of  the  room, 
and  at  this  the  principal  persons,  some  six  or 
eight  in  number,  take  their  seats  with  their 
backs  to  the  wall.  This  table  is  known  as  the 
"  hie  burde,"  and  it  stands  on  a  dais  some 
inches  higher  than  the  rest  of  the  floor,  being 
reserved  for  the  use  of  the  more  important 
guests.  On  the  wall  behind  them  is  a  piece  of 
tapestry,1  or  a  simpler  hanging  of  coloured 
worsted.  The  lord  of  the  castle  sits  in  a  high- 
backed  chair2  in  the  middle,  and  if  he  observes 
great  state,  there  may  be  a  canopy  suspended 
from  the  ceiling  above  his  seat.  On  his  right 
and  left  are  the  guests  seated  on  benches  pro- 
vided with  loose  cushions,  and  sometimes  with 
"bancours"  of  tapestry  or  other  woven  material. 
The  less  important  members  of  the  household 
are  seated  at  side  tables,  and  they  too  have  their 

1  See  Plate  III.  2  See  Plate  II. 


14        DOMESTIC   LIFE   IN   SCOTLAND 

backs  to  the  wall,  so  that  the  opposite  side  of 
each  table  is  left  free  for  service  from  the  middle 
of  the  room.  All  those  seated  at  the  meal  have 
their  heads  covered,  the  ladies,  according  to 
Scottish  fashion,  wearing  kerchiefs  draped 
from  a  high  structure  of  real  or  false  hair  in 
the  form  of  two  horns — a  dress  which  the 
Spanish  ambassador  described  as  the  hand- 
somest in  the  world.  Only  the  servants  are 
uncovered.  The  reason  for  wearing  hats  at 
meals  seems  to  have  been  that  it  was  considered 
a  precaution  against  the  contamination  of  the 
food  by  what  a  plain-spoken  old  writer  calls 
"  flyes  and  other  fylthe."  Our  present  stan- 
dards of  cleanliness  and  decency  were  not 
reached  in  a  day,  and  a  frank  account  of  some 
of  the  table  manners  of  the  fifteenth  century 
would  fill  us  with  disgust.  Even  in  France 
people  had.  to  be  warned  that  it  was  bad 
manners  to  spit  or  blow  the  nose  at  meals 
without  turning  aside  the  head  ;  that  one  must 
not  struggle  to  catch  fleas  at  table,  nor  seek  to 
relieve  the  irritation  of  a  then  prevalent  scalp- 
disease  by  scratching  the  head. 

The  table  is  spread  with  fair  Dornick  cloth, 
a  diapered  linen  first  made  at  Tournai,  the  same 
town  which  the  Dutch  called  Dornewyk. 
Lighted  canals  stand  on  the  tables  and  there 
are  others  in  tr.  chandillars  of  brass  which  hang 
from  the  roof  On  the  table  itself  the  most 


PLATE  til 


IN  FEUDAL  DAYS  15 

notable  object  is  the  salt-fatt,  or  salt-cellar,  often 
of  elaborate  design  and  considerable  size.  It 
had  a  quasi-ceremonial  importance,  and  ser- 
vants were  instructed  that  after  the  cloth  was 
laid  they  must  first  see  that  the  salt  cellar  was  in 
place  ;  after  that  the  knives,  then  the  bread, 
and  last  of  ail  the  food.  The  division  of  the 
table  into  "  above  and  below  the  salt  "  is  not  a 
mediaeval  one,  for  those  who  were  socially  in- 
ferior sat  at  separate  tables.  Pewter  dishes  were 
in  fairly  common  use,  but  even  in  many  impor- 
tant Scottish  houses  the  old  wooden  trenchers 
were  not  yet  displaced.  If  there  were  a  shortage 
of  plates,  some  of  the  retainers  might  have  to 
use  slices  of  bread  to  hold  their  food.  The 
spoons  were  of  pewter  or  occasionally  of  silver. 
Knives  are  seldom  mentioned  in  early  inven- 
tories, because  it  was  customary  to  use  the 
knives  which  men  carried  about  with  them  for 
general  use.  Forks  were  unknown  and  food 
was  carried  to  the  mouth  by  the  fingers.  Polite- 
ness required  that  only  three  fingers,  that  is  two 
fingers  and  the  thumb,  should  be  used  in 
handling  food  ;  and  in  drinking,  the  cup  was 
to  be  lifted  in  the  same  way.  This  handling  of 
food,  and  especially  the  fact  that  it  was  lifted 
from  the  general  dish  with  the  fingers,  explains 
the  necessity  for  the  basins  and  lavers,  some- 
times of  silver,  but  usually  of  less  costly 
metals,  which  were  served  for  the  use  of  the 


16       DOMESTIC   LIFE   IN   SCOTLAND 

guests.  Towels  were  provided  and  each  person 
had  his  table  napkin.  Their  use  is  indicated 
in  a  line  of  Gavin  Douglas's  JEneid,  where  he 
speaks  of  "  soft  serviettis  to  make  their  handis 
clene  "  ;  and  how  this  was  done  may  be  in- 
ferred from  Welldon's  description  of  James  VI, 
who,  he  tells  us,  "  rubbed  his  fingers'  ends 
slightly  with  the  wet  end  of  a  napkin."  Well- 
bred  persons  of  the  time  were  counselled  to 
avoid  gluttony,  to  eat  without  suffocating  them- 
selves and  not  to  stare  rudely  at  others  eating  ; 
they  were  also  to  drink  moderately,  diluting 
their  wine,  and  not  to  suck  in  their  liquor  "  as  if 
it  were  an  egg  '  —meaning,  I  suppose,  audibly 
— and  finally  they  must  not,  while  drinking,  let 
their  eyes  roll  about  to  this  side  and  that. 

Looking  round  the  hall,  we  see  that  the  floor 
is  covered  with  rushes  or  bent  grass.  A  "  lyar," 
or  rug,  is  stretched  in  front  of  the  fire,  and  on 
it  are  several  cushions  serving  as  footstools.  At 
the  opposite  end  of  the  hall  from  the  dais  is  a 
rude  gallery  in  which  two  or  three  pipers  or 
fiddlers  are  exercising  their  art,  and  in  the 
corner  of  the  hall  below  them  are  some  stands 
of  armour  with  spears  and  staves,  while  a 
;<  blawin'  horn  "  hangs  on  the  wall.  There  is 
also  on  one  side  of  the  hall  a  kind  of  service 
table,  not  a  board  detachable  from  its  supports, 
but  a  solid  table,  such  as  was  called  in  England 
a  "  table  dormant."  On  this  any  vessels  of 


IN  FEUDAL  DAYS  17 

silver  or  pewter  that  are  not  in  use  may  be  dis- 
played. The  only  other  piece  of  furniture  is  a 
chest,  in  which  napery  is  kept  and  which  serves 
also  as  a  seat.  In  the  shadow  of  a  deep  window 
we  may  perhaps  discover  a  spinning-wheel,  and 
beside  it,  on  a  cushion  on  the  stone  seat,  a 
"  buke  of  storeis,"  its  parchment  leaves  en- 
closed in  boards  clasped  with  silver.  On  the 
wall  by  the  fire-place  the  light  of  the  flickering 
candles  finds  answering  points  of  reflection  in 
the  gilding  of  a  polychrome  figure  in  carved 
wood,  representing  some  favourite  saint,  St. 
Ninian,  perhaps,  or  St.  Kentigern. 

Now  the  first  thing  that  strikes  us  in  this 
picture  of  the  hall  is  how  little  furniture  it 
contains.  Tables  and  forms,  with  a  chair  for 
the  master  of  the  house,  a  side  table  and  a 
chest,  these  are  all  that  we  find  in  a  large  room 
where  all  that  is  important  in  the  social  life  of 
the  house  takes  place.  Why  is  the  hall  so 
scantily  furnished  ?  We  know  that  pieces  of 
furniture  of  many  types  were  in  use — "  cop- 
amries,"  "  covartur-amries,"  "  meit-amries," 
"  vessel-almeries,"  "  wair-almries  "  and  "  wair- 
stalls,"  besides  chests  and  coffers  of  various 
kinds.  Yet  these  seldom  appeared  in  the  hall. 
Furniture  in  Scotland  was  made  for  conven- 
ience, not  for  display,  to  keep  dishes  and  napery 
out  of  the  way  of  dust  and  accidents,  and  it  was 
accordingly  made  locally  of  fir  or  other  cheap 


18        DOMESTIC   LIFE   IN   SCOTLAND 

wood,  and  consisted  of  plain,  serviceable 
pieces  with  little  or  no  pretension  to  artistic 
treatment.  On  the  other  hand,  the  foreign 
furniture  which  was  being  imported  by  Haly- 
burton  and  others  had  hardly  begun  to  reach 
the  private  houses.  The  Church,  by  virtue  of 
her  wealth  and  her  foreign  connections,  was 
still  the  pioneer  in  introducing  the  luxuries  of 
civilisation,  and  it  is  to  ecclesiastics  that  Haly- 
burton  sends  most  of  the  tapestries  and  furni- 
ture that  appear  in  his  Ledger.  It  is  early  in 
the  sixteenth  century  before  we  find  much 
Flemish  or  French  furniture  in  the  houses  of 
the  laity.  Yet  we  do  find  references,  excep- 
tional rather  than  typical,  to  the  "  lang-sadyll  " 
or  settle,  the  "  lettron  "  or  reading  desk,  and 
to  Flanderis  kists  and  counters,  pieces  of 
furniture  such  as  Halyburton  was  importing. 
Goods  of  foreign  origin  which  were  much 
more  widely  diffused  were  silver  salt-fatts  and 
other  vessels,  brazen  chandillars  and  candle- 
sticks, feather-beds,  pillows  and  cushions,  and, 
of  course,  napery.  One  entry  in  Halyburton 's 
Ledger  may  be  specially  mentioned — a  refer- 
ence to  an  "  oralag  "  sent  by  Bishop  Elphinston 
for  repair,  and  returned  "  mended,  and  the 
cais  new."  This  shows  that  clocks  ,  were 
already  in  use  in  Scotland  for  ecclesiastical  and 
public  buildings,  if  not  yet  for  domestic 
purposes. 


IN  FEUDAL   DAYS  19 

Let  us  examine  in  rather  more  detail  some  of 
the  furnishings  and  arrangements  of  the  hall. 
The  dining  tables  were  merely  long  boards,  of 
oak  or  fir,  supported  by  a  pair  of  trestles  which 
were  generally  of  fir,  and  when  not  in  use  the 
board  was  laid  against  the  wall  and  the  trestles 
were  cleared  away.  There  was  no  feeling  that 
the  room  looked  "  unfurnished  "  without  its 
tables.  In  the  Freiris  of  Berzvik  we  read  how  a 
"  hostillar's  "  wife  entertains  a  friar  in  her 
husband's  absence.  When  the  husband  un- 
expectedly returns,  she  orders  her  maiden, 
according  to  Sibbald's  version  (1802),  which 
professes  to  take  no  liberties  with  the  text,  to 
"  clear  the  board."  But  if  we  turn  to  the 
Bannatyne  MS.,  we  find  it  is  "  Close  yon  board," 
a  much  more  characteristic  touch,  implying  that 
the  table  itself  is  to  be  dismounted  and  removed. 

Go,  clois  yon  burd,  and  tak  awa  the  chyre 

And  lok  up  all  into  yone  almery, 

Baith  met  and  drink  with  wyne  and  aill  put  by. 

The  reference  to  the  single  chair,  which  was 
the  rightful  seat  of  the  master  of  the  house,  and 
to  the  use  of  the  almery,  are  worth  noting.  We 
also  read,  earlier  in  the  poem,  that 

The  burde  scho  cuverit  with  clath  of  costly  greyne, 
Hir  napry  aboif  wes  woundir  weill  besene, 

and  early  inventories  show  that  table  covers 
were,  like  the  cloth  of  a  modern  billiard  table, 


20        DOMESTIC   LIFE   IN  SCOTLAND 

always  green,  a  special  cloth  known  as  "  Inglis 
green  "  being  imported  from  England  for  the 
purpose. 

The  principal  table,  or  "  hie  burde,"  set  on 
the  dais  and  having  behind  it  the  tapestry  or 
other  wall-hanging,  was,  as  I  have  said,  reserved 
for  persons  of  importance,  and  the  dais  thus 
gave  a  line  of  social  distinction.  The  author  of 
Schir  Penny,  satirising  the  deference  paid 
to  wealth,  in  the  person  of  Sir  Penny,  says  : 

"  That  Syre  is  set  on  heich  deiss 
And  servit  with  mony  rich  meiss 
At  the  hie  burde." 

Some  years  ago  a  paper  was  read  before  a 
learned  Society  giving  an  account  of  an  inter- 
esting sixteenth  century  inventory.  The  author, 
an  experienced  archaeologist,  had  little  know- 
ledge of  the  social  uses  of  the  time,  and  the 
result  was  an  extraordinary  series  of  blunders. 
The  first  thing  mentioned  in  the  hall  was  "  ane 
desbuyrd,"  meaning  of  course  the  table  on  the 
dais,  and  this  was  interpreted  as  "a  dish- 
board,  or  perhaps  a  plate-rack."  The  author 
then  pointed  out  the  remarkable  absence  of 
chairs,  mentioning  that  only  one  was  specified, 
and  that  it  stood  in  the  hall,  which,  he  said, 
"  indicates  a  meagreness  of  plenishing  not 
easily  reconcilable  even  with  the  plain  living 
of  the  times."  The  single  chair,  placed  in  the 
hall  for  the  master's  use,  was  the  invariable 


IN  FEUDAL  DAYS  21 

rule  at  the  period  of  which  he  wrote,  and 
chairs  did  not  come  into  ordinary  domestic 
use  till  the  seventeenth  century.  The  author 
of  the  paper  also  interpreted  "  treying  copes  " 
as  trying  cups,  which  he  thought  might  mean 
measuring  cups,  whereas  they  are  simply 
"  tree-en "  cups,  or  cups  made  of  wood  ; 
and  a  "  wairstall,"  a  kind  of  press,  he  converted 
into  a  night  stool,  a  brilliant  effort  of  fancy  ! 
Most  of  these  mistakes  arise  not  merely  from 
ignorance  of  the  terminology  of  house  furniture 
of  the  time,  but  from  failing  to  realise  the  differ- 
ence between  the  domestic  arrangements  and 
social  life  of  that  age  and  those  of  our  own  day. 
Early  furniture  owes  much  of  its  interest  to  its 
reflecting  customs  with  which  we  are  no  longer 
familiar,  and  it  is  meaningless  unless  we  inter- 
pret it  in  terms  of  the  social  habits  which 
produced  it. 

In  Henryson's  poem,  The  Twa  Mice,  we 
read  how  the  cat  catches  one  of  the  mice,  and 
how,  in  playing  with  her  victim  : 

Quhyll  wad  she  let  her  ryn  undeltthe  strae 

— the  straw  with  which  the  floor  was  covered. 
The  mouse  manages  to  escape,  and  Sibbald's 
version  (1802)  tells  us  that  she  crept  "  between 
the  dressour  and  the  wall  "  and  climbed 
"behind  the  panelling."  Now  the  words 
"  dressour  "  and  "  panelling  "  were  not  in  use 


22        DOMESTIC  LIFE  IN  SCOTLAND 

in  Scotland  when  the  poem  was  written,  and 
their  introduction  is  but  another  instance  of  the 
propensity  to  substitute  for  unfamiliar  ex- 
pressions others  more  easily  understood  and 
perhaps  considered  more  picturesque.  When 
we  consult  the  early  text  we  find  that  the  mouse 
escapes,  not  between  the  dressour  and  the  wall, 
but  between  "  ane  burde  and  the  wall,"  and 
climbs,  not  behind  the  panelling,  but  behind 
"  ane  parelling,"  which  was  the  usual  name  for 
the  hanging  on  the  wall  behind  the  dais  table. 
The  burde,  taken  from  its  trestles,  had  no 
doubt  been  laid  along  the  foot  of  the  wall,  and 
the  mouse,  getting  behind  it,  crept  beneath  the 
parelling  and  worked  her  way  into  a  position  of 
safety.  Accordingly  she  says,  later  in  the 
poem  : 

I  thank  yone  courtyne  and  yone  perpall  wall 
For  my  defence  now  fra  ane  crewel  beist, 

the  perpall  wall  being  the  partition  wall  on 
which  the  courtyne  or  parelling  hung. 

A  very  interesting  and  characteristic  piece  of 
furniture  in  the  Scottish  mediaeval  hall  was  the 
Comptour,  or  Counter.  Few  houses  in  the 
fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries  were  without 
one,  yet  to-day  there  are  the  most  conflicting 
ideas  as  to  what  the  counter  really  was,  and 
what  part  it  played  in  the  domestic  life  of  the 
time.  It  has  been  defined  as  a  table,  a  cabinet, 


IN   FEUDAL   DAYS  23 

'a  desk  and  so  on,  while  one  reference  in  an  old 
protocol  book  has  been  held  to  prove  that  it 
was  a  penannular,  or  C-shaped,  sofa.  Let  us 
see  what  we  can  learn  from  documents  of  the 
time  when  the  counter  was  in  everyday  use. 
But  we  must  bear  in  mind  that  in  any  investiga- 
tion into  early  furniture  and  its  nomenclature 
we  are  dealing  with  names  which,  though 
stereotyped  themselves,  are  applied  to  furni- 
ture forms  which  are  constantly  being  modified 
and  transformed  in  the  attempt  to  adapt  them 
to  the  varying  uses  of  a  rapidly  developing 
social  system.  Especially  is  this  true  of  pieces 
of  furniture  whose  use  is  not  limited  by  having 
to  meet  some  definite  and  permanent  human 
need.  Beds,  dining-tables  and  chairs,  for 
example,  are  controlled  by  a  certain  fixed  basis 
of  human  requirement  ;  and,  under  all  their 
superficial  varieties  of  form,  their  essential 
shape  and  measurements  must  have  a  certain 
relation  to  the  scale  and  movements  of  the 
human  figure.  But  when  furniture  is  not  so 
closely  bound  by  elementary  needs,  the  form 
remains  comparatively  indeterminate,  and  may 
vary  in  any  direction  according  to  the  wants  of 
those  for  whom  it  is  made.  Thus  a  name  may 
persist  long  after  it  has  ceased  to  be  a  correct 
description  of  the  thing.  A  Cupboard,  for 
instance — originally  a  table  for  displaying  cups 
— has  so  changed  its  use  and  form  that  it  has 


24        DOMESTIC  LIFE   IN  SCOTLAND 

now  nothing  to  do  with  cups,  it  is  not  a  table, 
and  it  is  used  rather  for  concealment  than  dis- 
play, A  Gardevyand,  originally  intended,  as 
its  name  implies,  for  storing  food,  developed 
into  a  sort  of  portable  strong  box,  so  that  we 
read  of  locks  and  "  braycis  "  being  added  to  the 
King's  "  cardiviance  "  in  order  to  "  twrss 
west  "  the  gold  and  silver  vessels  of  James  IV 
"  again  Yule  to  Lythgow."  In  the  same  way 
we  read  of  a  "  meit-almery  for  conserving 
napery  "  and  a  "  capamre  "  (or  cup-almrie)  for 
holding  clothes.  Thus  the  name  of  a  piece  of 
furniture  must  not  be  taken  as  indicating  any- 
thing more  than  its  original  use. 

The  counter,  compter-buird  or  compt  burde, 
was  originally  a  table  whose  top  was  used  as  a 
reckoning  board,  being  marked  out  into  spaces 
with  distinguishing  symbols.  It  was  used  for 
such  purposes  as  adding  up  accounts,  and  for 
these  calculations  disc-shaped  counters  or  jet- 
tons were  employed.  When  not  in  use  the 
jettons  were  kept  in  metal  cylindrical  cases, 
referred  to  in  Halyburton's  Ledger  as  "  nests  of 
countaris."  A  reference  to  the  use  of  the  compter 
burde  for  calculating  occurs  in  Calderwood's 
History  of  the  Kirk  of  Scotland,  where  we  are 
told,  as  one  incident  of  an  earthquake  in  1597, 
that  "  a  man  in  St.  Johnston,  laying  compts 
with  his  compters,  the  compts  lap  off  the  buird  ; 
the  man's  thighs  trembled,  and,"  adds  the 


IN  FEUDAL  DAYS  25 

faithful  historian,  "  ane  leg  went  up  and  the 
other  doun."  Counter  boards  were  tables  of 
convenient  size  and  they  were  built  on  fixed 
legs,  not  simply  laid  on  trestles.  When  we 
bear  in  mind  that  these  tables,  which  were 
originally  imported  from  Flanders,  were  the 
only  tables  known  except  the  cumbrous  long 
boards  and  trestles  used  for  meals,  we  need  not 
be  surprised  that  they  soon  came  into  common 
use  even  among  those  who  had  little  need  for 
arithmetical  calculation,  but  who  appreciated 
the  usefulness  of  a  steady,  moderate-sized  table 
for  many  domestic  purposes.  Early  inven- 
tories show  that  in  a  large  number  of  houses 
there  was  no  table  but  the  counter  ;  sometimes 
"  ane  comptar  with  the  furmes  "  is  mentioned, 
clearly  showing  that  it  was  used  for  the  house- 
hold meals.  Mediaeval  illustration  proves  that 
the  reckoning  board  was  sometimes  provided 
on  the  table-cloth,  and  this  would  enable  the 
table  itself  to  be  without  special  marking  and  so 
to  lose  its  arithmetical  associations. 

There  is  documentary  evidence  that  as  the 
counter  developed  as  a  piece  of  furniture  it 
was  made  with  some  enclosed  accommodation 
below.  Thus  Sir  David  Lyndsay,  of  the  Mount, 
left  among  his  furnishings  "  ane  lokit  comptar 
burde,"  and  we  find  in  the  second  half  of  the 
sixteenth  century  an  increasing  number  of 
references  to  the  locks  and  keys  of  counters, 


26        DOMESTIC  LIFE   IN  SCOTLAND 

implying  that  they  had  closed  receptacles.  As 
time  went  on  the  enclosed  accommodation  seems 
to  have  extended  downwards  till  it  became  the 
characteristic  feature  of  the  counter,  and  what 
had  been  the  surface  of  the  table  now  shrank  in 
importance  till  it  was  merely  the  top  of  a  small 
rectangular  almerie.  In  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury we  read  of  "  counter-almries  "  ;  and  in  the 
list  issued  in  1612  of  foreign  goods  subject  to 
duty  on  import  to  Scotland,  we  find  a  fixed 
rate  levied  on  "  cabinettis  or  countaris."  Thus 
the  counter,  which,  under  the  name  of  "  ane 
stop-compter,"  had  been  used  for  the  display 
of  stoups  or  vessels  as  early  as  1489,  had  gone 
through  a  similar  course  of  development  to  that 
of  the  cupboard  in  England.  The  counter,  as 
an  article  of  domestic  furniture,  seems  to  have 
gone  out  of  use,  or  at  least  to  have  been  super- 
seded by  other  forms  of  table  and  cupboard, 
about  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century. 
It  was  retained,  however,  among  merchants  and 
tradesmen  as  a  useful  piece  of  business  furni- 
ture, and  the  shop  and  bank  counters  of  our 
day  are  thus  survivals  or  developments  of  a 
forgotten  mediaeval  form. 

In  connection  with  the  vessels  which  stood 
upon  the  counter  when  it  was  used  as  a  side 
table,  one  interesting  question  arises.  What  is 
meant  by  the  "  compterfute  weschel  "  which 
often  appears  in  early  lists  of  household  goods  ? 


IN  FEUDAL   DAYS  27 

In  an  English  inventory  of  1487,  quoted  as  an 
appendix  to  the  Paston  Letters,  we  read  of 
"  ij  garnysshe  "  (i.e.  two  complete  sets)  "  of 
pewter  vessel  counterfete  "  ;  and,  according  to 
an  inventory  of  1598,  transcribed  in  the  Black 
Book  of  Toy  mouth,  there  were  "  off  counterfute 
plaittis  in  the  galarie  garderob  of  Balloch,  iiij 
dosane."  These  are  the  only  references  I  have 
found  to  counterfute  dishes  in  the  plural,  and 
in  these  cases  it  is  probable  that  a  counterfeit 
metal  is  intended,  though  it  is  hard  to  say  what 
is  meant  by  pewter  counterfeit.  The  diction- 
aries interpret  "  compterfute  "  in  the  sense  of 
"  imitation,"  an  inferior  metal  meant  to  imitate 
one  more  valuable,  and  they  give  no  alternative 
definition.  As  a  matter  of  fact  the  base  metal 
made  to  resemble  gold  was  commonly  called 
"  alchemy." 

But  the  references  in  early  Scottish  inven- 
tories are  nearly  always  to  "  ane  compterfute 
vessel,"  or  simply  "  ane  comptarfut,"  in  the 
singular,  and  when  this  is  mentioned  as  one 
particular  vessel  among  others  whose  character 
or  use  is  stated,  it  is  difficult  to  resist  the  con- 
clusion that  the  name  was  applied  to  a  vessel 
serving  a  specific  purpose  or  occupying  a  par- 
ticular place.  This  impression  is  confirmed 
when  we  find  the  counterfoot  grouped  with 
vessels  which  were  certainly  silver  ;  and  any 
lingering  uncertainty  disappears  when  we  read, 


28        DOMESTIC   LIFE   IN   SCOTLAND 

in  a  carefully  detailed  inventory  of  1542,  of  a 
counterfoot  expressly  stated  to  be  of  silver,  its 
weight  being  given  and  worked  out  at  the  value 
of  silver  per  ounce.  What  a  "  comptarfut  " 
was  must  remain  a  matter  of  conjecture  till 
some  literary  reference  is  found  which  throws 
light  on  the  problem.  The  word  might  con- 
ceivably be  applied  to  a  vessel  cast  in  two 
halves  ;  or,  as  an  alternative  suggestion,  it 
might  be  used  of  a  vessel  which  stood  at  the 
foot  of,  or  underneath,  the  counter — perhaps 
on  a  tray  contained  between  the  stretchers  near 
the  ground,  just  as  we  see  vessels  displayed  in 
this  position  in  early  illustrations  of  similar 
pieces  of  furniture  in  other  countries,  such  as 
credences  and  dressers. 


Let  us  pass  from  the  Hall  to  another  room 
which  is  often  mentioned  in  documents  as  to 
old  Scottish  houses,  the  "  Chalmer  of  Des." 
The  name  has,  like  other  mediaeval  terms, 
dropped  out  of  use  ;  I  do  not  think  it  is  men- 
tioned in  McGibbon  and  Ross,  and  its  meaning 
has  puzzled  antiquarians  and  lexicographers. 
Jamieson,  discussing  the  corruption  "  chambra- 
deeze,"  properly  dismisses  the  suggestion  that 
it  stood  for  "  la  chambre  ou  ils  disent,"  and 
tells  us  that  the  word  was  still  in  use  among 
old  people  in  Fife  for  a  parlour,  and  that  the 
original  form  was  "  Chamber  of  Dais."  Sir 


IN   FEUDAL   DAYS  29 

Walter  Scott  said  it  was  still  common  in  his  day 
in  the  South  of  Scotland,  and  was  applied  to 
the  best  sleeping  room  ;  and  he  suggested  that 
it  was  the  room  in  which  there  was  a  bed  with 
a  dais,  or  canopy.  But  the  term  originated  in 
castles  where  there  were  many  beds  with 
canopies,  but  only  one  Chamber  of  Dais  ; 
and,  moreover,  in  Scottish  records  the  word  dais 
is  applied  to  the  raised  platform,  and  not,  as  in 
France,  to  the  canopy,  which  is  called  the 
"  cannabie  "  or  "  rufe,"  or  sometimes,  in  con- 
nection with  beds,  the  "  sparwort."  A  study 
of  early  inventories  leaves  little  doubt  that  the 
Chamber  of  Dais  was  the  private  apartment 
which  so  often  communicated  with  the  upper 
or  dais  end  of  the  hall.  It  was  the  bedchamber 
of  the  master  of  the  house,  and  it  was  also  used, 
in  accordance  with  mediaeval  custom,  as  a 
retiring  room  for  those  who  sat  at  the  dais  table. 
Those  who  sat  there  represented  what  is  called 
"  the  quality,"  and  the  chamber  was  for  their 
exclusive  use.  Its  position  and  use  are  clearly 
shown  by  an  extract  from  an  old  protocol  book, 
which  tells  us  that  Peter  Rankin,  the  heir  of 
Shield,  "  entered  the  hall  of  Scheld  and  the 
chalmer  of  des  within  the  hall  "  (meaning  that 
to  reach  it  he  had  to  go  through  the  hall).  After 
describing  the  furniture  which  he  found  in  the 
hall  it  goes  on,  "  and  in  the  chalmer  of  des  he 
found  twa  fedder  beddis  with  necessaries,  and 


80        DOMESTIC   LIFE   IN  SCOTLAND 

a  wooden  press."  It  is  evident  that  the  Cham- 
ber of  Dais  was  in  effect  the  principal  bedroom. 
I  have  spoken  of  the  bareness  of  the  hall  in 
the  matter  of  furniture,  but  the  furnishing  of 
the  bedrooms  was  equally  meagre,  and  this 
simply  because  of  the  primitive  standard  of 
comfort  of  the  times.  Even  in  an  English 
house  so  richly  furnished  as  Arundel  Castle,  the 
furnishing  of  the  King's  Chamber,  so  late  as  the 
year  1580,  consisted  only  of  a  bed,  a  table  and 
a  chair,  besides  the  tapestry  hangings.  We 
need  not  expect  to  find  a  more  luxurious  stan- 
dard in  Scotland.  In  the  well-equipped  house 
of  Lord  Lindsay  of  Byres — a  house  which  had 
its  own  private  chapel  with  suitable  vestments 
and  a  gilded  chalice — the  Chalmer  of  Des  had 
no  furniture  but  the  bed  and  "  an  aid  compter," 
on  which  stood  a  candle  and  two  books.  In 
nearly  all  the  other  bedrooms  of  the  house  there 
was  nothing  but  the  bed  or  beds,  for  it  was 
common  to  put  several  beds  in  one  room.  Occa- 
sionally there  is  a  chest  to  hold  clothes,  or  a  form 
or  stool,  but  nothing  else  was  considered  neces- 
sary. The  bed,  however,  was  often  fitted  with 
a  "  futegang,"  corresponding  to  the  French 
"  marchepied  " — the  long  step  or  stool  which  we 
see  in  mediaeval  illustrations  placed  along  the 
side  of  the  bed.  The  "  futegang  "  was  some- 
times "  bandit,"  that  is,  hinged,  so  that  the 
top  could  be  opened  and  the  inside  used  for 


IN   FEUDAL   DAYS  31 

keeping  clothes,  and  in  this  form  it  is  sometimes 
called  a  "  bimcar." 

We  need  not  concern  ourselves  with  kitchen 
furniture  nor  with  the  equipment  of  the  brew- 
house  and  bakehouse  which  were  found  in  every 
mediaeval  mansion.  If  what  has  been  said 
conveys  the  impression  that  life  in  a  Scottish 
mediaeval  castle  must  have  been  a  stern  and 
comfortless  existence,  remember  that  a  hardy 
race  is  not  reared  in  luxury.  Cast  your  minds 
back  to  the  Scotland  of  that  day,  set  far  from 
the  centres  of  mediaeval  culture,  hard  pressed 
to  hold  her  own  against  her  richer  and  more 
powerful  neighbour  ;  a  land  of  mountain  and 
moor,  shrouded  with  mist,  drenched  with  rain, 
visited  with  short  and  fitful  summers  and  long 
and  bitter  winters,  and  predestined  to  a  history 
of  jealous  factions  and  relentless  feuds  ;  and 
remember  that  in  this  land  was  reared  a  race 
hard-headed,  resolute  and  tenacious,  yet  ever 
quick  to  shed  its  blood  for  a  great  cause,  a  dear 
name  or  a  fine  point  of  doctrine  ;  a  race  ready 
to  go  forth  to  other  lands,  however  distant  and 
however  inhospitable,  in  quest  of  profit  or 
adventure  ;  yet  with  hearts  that  kept  turning 
always  homeward  with  something  of  the  passion 
which  a  man  cherishes  for  the  mother  who  has 
borne  him  in  pain  and  nurtured  him  in  poverty. 


LECTURE  II 

THE  WEALTH   OF  THE  CHURCH:    A  PRE- 
REFORMATION  MANSE 

THE   SIXTEENTH   CENTURY 

The  wealth  of  the  Church  as  a  factor  in  the  Reformation 
movement — Relation  of  the  movement  to  the  Renaissance 
— Humanism  within  the  Church — The  Parson  of  Stobo  ; 
his  revenues,  etc. — The  manse  in  Glasgow  and  its  inmates — 
A  disappointed  nephew — The  parson's  bedchamber — Rich 
hangings  and  furniture — An  unexpected  apparition — 
Coffers  and  chests  and  their  contents — Early  regulations 
as  to  clerical  costume — The  parson's  costly  apparel — 
"  The  oratour  within  his  hous  " — The  altar  and  its  furnish- 
ings— Vestments — Sacred  and  secular  books — The  hall — 
Carved  furniture — Cupboard  of  plate — Significance  of 
plate  in  mediae val  times — The  kitchen — "  Large  tabling 
and  belly  cheer  " — Stores  of  provisions  and  fuel — Riding 
kit  and  armour — Sport  and  recreations — Tame  animals — 
An  early  chiming  clock — The  parson's  death — The  people 
and  the  Church. 

WHATEVER    line    of    interest    may 
lead   one   to   the   study  of   Scotland 
in   the   sixteenth   century,   one   can- 
not go  far  without  becoming  conscious  of  a 
deep  and  irresistible  current  surging  through 
the  national  life  of  the  time.    Everywhere  there 
is  transition,  progress,  change.    Whatever  new 
facts  research  may  reveal,  in  this  department  or 
in  that,  the  interest  of  these  as  isolated  facts 
soon  gives  place  to  a  sense  of  their  signifi- 

32 


THE  WEALTH  OF  THE  CHURCH   33 

cance  as  reflecting  the  general  movement 
of  the  age.  So  it  is  with  the  study  of 
domestic  furnishing.  As  we  review  the  docu- 
mentary records  of  house  plenishings  in  the 
sixteenth  century  we  are  brought  face  to  face 
with  two  symptoms  of  the  time  too  conspicuous 
to  be  passed  by.  The  first  of  these  is  the  wealth 
of  the  Church,  a  material  prosperity  strikingly 
disproportionate  to  the  general  economic  con- 
dition of  the  country.  The  second  is  the  appear- 
ance of  the  middle  class,  and  its  rapid  advance 
in  wealth  and  social  importance.  These  two 
phenomena  cannot  strictly  be  separated,  or 
treated  as  if  they  had  no  relation  to  each  other. 
As  a  matter  of  fact  the  Church  lost  her  economic 
leadership  just  because  civilisation  became 
gradually  too  complex  for  her  control,  and 
because  the  trades  and  crafts  which  had  grown 
up  under  her  patronage  became  so  highly 
specialised  as  to  call  for  skilled  and  trained  men 
to  conduct  and  manage  them  ;  and  with  her 
economic  leadership  the  Church  lost,  of  course, 
a  large  part  of  her  hold  on  the  people.  And,  on 
the  other  hand,  the  revolt  against  the  corrup- 
tions and  exactions  of  the  Church  proved  a 
powerful  factor  in  educating  the  people,  in 
developing  their  capacity  for  independent  judg- 
ment, and  in  fitting  them  for  the  political 
influence  which  they  were  destined  to  exercise. 
Still,  it  will  be  convenient  to  treat  these  two 


34        DOMESTIC  LIFE   IN  SCOTLAND 

distinctive  features  of  the  life  of  the  time 
separately,  and  in  the  present  lecture  we  shall 
limit  ourselves  to  the  wealth  of  the  Church  as 
one  of  the  elements  which  led  up  to  the  Refor- 
mation. With  the  ecclesiastical  controversies 
of  the  time  we  need  not  concern  ourselves. 
Even  the  historical  results  of  the  Reformation — 
the  abolition  of  the  papal  power  in  Scotland  and 
the  establishment  of  the  reformed  religion — 
interest  us  here  only  in  some  of  their  conse- 
quences. But  the  Reformation  movement  has 
this  signal  importance  for  us,  that  it  was  the 
crisis  in  which  the  modern  spirit  sought  for  a 
decisive  victory  in  its  conflict  with  mediaeval- 
ism  ;  and  that  it  provided  Scotland  with  a  sharp 
issue  on  which  every  man  was  able  to  take  a  side, 
and  so  helped  to  bring  the  country  to  a  know- 
ledge of  its  own  character  and  its  own  destiny. 

Let  us  beware,  however,  of  thinking  of  the 
Reformation  as  a  local  movement,  the  product 
of  merely  local  conditions.  Both  the  decay 
within  the  Church,  and  the  spirit  of  criticism 
and  revolt  without,  were  largely  due  to  the 
breaking  up  of  old  standards  of  thought  and  of 
conduct,  and  to  the  emancipation  from  accus- 
tomed restraints,  which  followed,  all  over 
Europe,  from  the  Renaissance.  In  every 
country,  and  in  every  department  of  life,  sub- 
mission to  authority  gave  place  to  the  exercise 
of  individual  judgment.  Long  acknowledged 


THE  WEALTH  OF  THE  CHURCH   35 

codes  were  challenged,  and  as  their  control 
weakened  there  was  an  inevitable  tendency  to 
revert  to  an  undisciplined  paganism. 

Within  the  borders  of  the  Church  itself  these 
changes  soon  began  to  bear  bitter  fruit.  In  the 
intoxicating  atmosphere  of  humanism  spiritu- 
ality began  to  wither  and  to  lose  its  vital  and 
inspiring  force.  The  beauty  of  holiness  and  the 
rapture  of  self-consecration  were  fading  visions 
that  seemed  more  and  more  spectral  and  delu- 
sive. The  call  of  the  old  austere  ideals  of 
poverty  and  self-mortification  now  sounded 
faint  and  far  away — the  dying  echo  of  a  crazy 
enthusiasm.  While  there  were  many  in  the 
Church  who,  like  Bishop  Elphinstone  in  Scot- 
land, upheld  the  highest  traditions  of  their 
office,  there  were  many  more  who  preferred  to 
work  out  their  careers  as  ambitious  nobles  and 
scheming  men  of  the  world.  In  an  age  when 
every  institution,  however  venerable,  was  sub- 
jected to  searching  criticism,  it  was  inevitable 
that  the  revolt  against  a  degenerate  Church, 
whose  sway  had  been  absolute  and  was  now 
felt  oppressive, should  everywhere  be  a  character- 
istic consequence  of  the  Renaissance.  Else- 
where, however,  that  conflict  might  be  sub- 
sidiary to  other  manifestations  of  the  new 
spirit — to  a  vigorous  outburst  of  artistic  or 
literary  activity,  or  to  an  effort  for  constitutional 
liberty.  In  Scotland  it  was  the  problem  on 


36        DOMESTIC   LIFE  IN   SCOTLAND 

which  all  the  national  energies  were  brought 
to  a  focus.  There  the  ecclesiastical  abuses 
were  not  less  flagrant  than  elsewhere  ;  and 
there  the  opulence  of  the  Church  was  thrown 
into  sharp  relief  against  the  poverty  of  the 
people. 

Catholic  writers,  while  admitting  that  there 
was  much  that  was  reprehensible  in  the  lives  of 
the  clergy,  maintain  that  the  attack  on  the 
Church  was  largely  inspired  by  the  cupidity  of 
the  nobles,  who  had  remained  impoverished 
since  the  War  of  Independence  ;  and  it  cannot 
be  disputed  that  there  is  much  historical  evi- 
dence of  the  existence  of  such  sordid  motives. 
But  from  this  point  of  view,  no  less  than  from 
the  opposite  one,  the  wealth  of  the  Church  is 
admitted  to  be  an  element  of  crucial  import- 
ance in  accounting  for  the  course  of  Scottish 
history  in  the  sixteenth  century.  It  is  said 
that  practically  half  the  wealth  of  the  country 
was  in  the  hands  of  the  Church.  We  have 
already  seen  how  most  of  the  rich  furnishings 
and  luxuries  sent  into  Scotland  by  Andrew 
Halyburton  were  consigned  to  ecclesiastics. 
And  Cardinal  Beatoun,  we  are  told,  kept  such 
a  house  "  as  was  never  holden  in  Scotland 
under  a  King."  But  general  statements  and 
exceptional  instances  do  not  give  us  a  picture 
of  the  wealth  of  the  Church  as  it  struck  the  eye 
of  contemporary  observers.  Little  or  nothing 


THE  WEALTH  OF  THE  CHURCH  37 

has  been  written  as  to  the  actual  conditions  of 
the  home  life  of  the  ordinary  clergy.  To  fill 
this  gap  and  to  give  you  a  glimpse  of  the 
interior  of  a  Pre-Reformation  manse  and  its 
furnishings,  I  propose  to  describe  the  home  of 
a  Scottish  priest  who  drew  his  revenues  from  a 
thinly  populated  district  in  Tweedside  and  who 
was  one  of  the  Canons  of  Glasgow  Cathedral. 

In  February  of  the  year  1542  there  died,  at 
his  house  in  Glasgow,  Maister  Adam  Colqu- 
houn,  "  persone  of  Stobo."  The  manse  of 
Stobo  stood  at  the  head  of  the  Drygate  of 
Glasgow,  and  was  one  of  the  many  houses  in 
that  quarter  occupied  by  the  Cathedral  clergy. 
The  Chapter  of  Glasgow  consisted  of  thirty-two 
canonries  or  prebends,  and  of  these  the  canonry 
of  Stobo  was  not  the  least  desirable.  The 
benefice  of  Stobo  brought  in  an  income  of  two 
thousand  merks  a  year,  and  that  of  Broughton, 
which  went  with  it,  another  thousand  merks, 
representing  in  all  two  thousand  pounds  of  the 
money  of  the  realm  at  that  date.  John  Major, 
writing  of  Glasgow  in  Colquhoun's  time,  says, 
"  the  Church  possesses  prebends  many  and 
fat  ;  but  in  Scotland  such  revenues  are  enjoyed 
in  absentia  just  as  they  would  be  inpresentia"  a 
custom  which  he  deplores.  The  cure  of  souls 
in  Stobo  was  in  the  hands  of  a  rural  vicar,  John 
Colquhoun,  probably  a  relative  of  Maister 
Adam.  It  was  expected  of  the  prebendary, 


38       DOMESTIC  LIFE  IN  SCOTLAND 

however,  that  he  should  pay  periodical  visits  in 
order  to  superintend  his  rural  charge.  During 
such  absences  he  was  represented  in  the 
Chapter  by  a  Vicar  of  Stalls,  to  whom  he  had 
to  make  an  annual  payment  of  twelve  merks  a 
year,  along  with  a  cope  and  surplice.  There 
was  also  an  ordinance,  dating  from  1401,  which 
"  considering  the  great  and  detestable  deficiency 
of  the  ornaments  "  from  which  the  Cathedral 
had  suffered  in  its  divine  services,  levied  a  tax 
on  the  various  prebendaries  for  copes,  chasubles, 
dalmatics,  tunics  and  other  ornaments.  For 
this  purpose  the  Parson  of  Stobo  had  to  contri- 
bute five  pounds.  These,  however,  with  perhaps 
a  small  salary  to  his  vicar,  seem  to  have  been 
the  only  charges  against  his  income. 

As  to  Maister  Adam  Colquhoun  himself,  he 
was  a  younger  son  of  Patrick  Colquhoun  of 
Glens,  who  owned  property  in  the  Stable  Green 
at  the  western  end  of  the  Cathedral.  A  few 
scattered  references  to  him  in  early  records 
suggest  that  he  may  have  been  somewhat  high- 
handed and  given  to  contention.  The  Glasgow 
Diocesan  Registers  record  a  dispute  between 
him,  when  as  a  younger  man  he  was  Rector  of 
Biggar,  and  the  neighbouring  Rector  of  Skirling 
on  a  question  of  tithes  ;  and  after  he  had  been 
promoted  to  be  Rector  of  Govan,  a  Glasgow 
canonry,  he  was  charged  with  taking  possession 
of  part  of  the  Rector  of  Renfrew's  manse  during 


THE  WEALTH  OF  THE  CHURCH   39 

his  absence.  One  other  fact  may  be  mentioned 
which  has  some  interest.  He  inherited  a  house 
in  Stable  Green  which  he  sold  to  Matthew 
Stewart,  second  Earl  of  Lennox,  and  it  was  in 
this  house  that  Darnley,  years  afterwards,  lay 
sick  on  the  memorable  occasion  when  Queen 
Mary  visited  him  and  "  taried  certen  daies 
withe  him  "  two  or  three  weeks  before  his 
murder. 

The  manse  of  Stobo,  whose  furnishings  we 
are  to  describe,  is  said  to  have  been  a  tall,  tower- 
like  house,  very  solidly  built  of  stone.  It  was 
entered  by  a  winding  stone  stair  in  an  outside 
tower  pierced  by  narrow  slits  which  admitted 
but  little  light,  and  the  doors  of  the  apartments, 
as  was  usual  at  that  time,  opened  direct  from 
the  stair,  or  from  other  rooms,  there  being  no 
passages.  There  were  spacious  fireplaces  with 
carved  lintels  in  the  hall  and  in  the  parson's 
own  chamber,  and  near  the  fireplaces  there 
were  little  aumries  let  into  the  walls.  The 
interiors  were  gloomy  and  prison-like,  for  the 
light  entered  by  small  windows  through  walls 
which  were  three  feet  thick.  At  the  back  of  the 
house,  facing  south,  there  were  wooden  gal- 
leries which  pleasantly  overlooked  the  garden 
and  orchard  running  down  to  the  burn,  and 
enabled  the  occupants  to  take  advantage  of 
such  sunlight  and  fresh  air  as  the  climate  and 
season  afforded. 


When  his  last  "  seiknes  "  was  upon  him,  the 
household  included,  besides  the  dying  man, 
his  two  natural  sons,  James  and  Adam,  and 
their  mother,  Jane  Boyd,  who  no  doubt  tended 
him  in  his  hour  of  extremity.  But  there  was 
also  living  a  nephew,  Peter  Colquhoun,  de- 
scribed as  "  a  citinar  of  Glasgow,"  who,  after 
his  uncle's  death,  claimed  to  be  the  legal  heir. 
This  nephew  charged  the  two  natural  sons  and 
their  mother,  along  with  James  Houston,  sub- 
dean  of  Glasgow,  and  Master  Archibald  Crau- 
furd,  parson  of  Eaglesham,  whose  manse  was 
next  door,  with  "  wrangously  intromitting  " 
with  the  goods  of  the  late  Master  Adam  during 
his  illness  and  after  his  death  ;  and  moved  the 
Lords  of  Council  to  cause  the  defenders  to 
deliver  up  the  "  gudis  of  airschip  or  the  avail 
thereof  "  as  "  now  pertening  to  the  said  Peter 
be  resoun  of  airschip  throw  deceis  of  his 
umquhile  erne  " — or  late  uncle.  What  were 
the  pleas  advanced  by  the  parties  to  this  law- 
suit, we  are  not  told.  But  if  Peter  was  trusting 
to  the  sons  of  a  celibate  priest  having  no  legal 
status  he  was  leaning  on  a  broken  reed.  For  in 
the  Register  of  the  Privy  Seal  we  find  that  on 
5  February,  1529-30,  James  and  Ade  Colqu- 
houn, sons  of  Mr.  Ade  Colquhoun,  Parson  of 
Stobo,  had  been  formally  legitimated.  The 
Lords  of  Council  accordingly  assoilzied  the 
defendants,  and  the  unfortunate  Peter  lost  his 


THE  WEALTH  OF  THE  CHURCH  41 

case.  His  claim,  however,  gives  so  full  a  descrip- 
tion of  his  uncle's  possessions  that  we  can  form  a 
tolerably  clear  picture  of  what  must  have  been 
a  remarkable  house. 

Let  us  begin  with  the  parson's  own  chamber. 
Here  there  was  a  bed  of  richly  carved  wood 
decorated  with  gold,  in  which  Master  Adam 
slept  soft  o'  nights  on  a  feather  mattress  con- 
taining 140  Ib.  of  down — nearly  double  the 
quantity  that  is  put  into  the  best  modern 
feather  bed.  His  head,  dressed  with  "  nycht 
hair-gear  "  and  covered  with  a  "  nycht  courche," 
rested  on  luxurious  down  pillows  "  warit,"  or 
covered,  with  holland  cloth.  The  sheets  were 
of  the  same  fine  material,  and  for  warmth  in 
the  raw  Glasgow  nights  there  were  first  a  pair 
of  "  pladdis,"  and  over  these  a  pair  of  blankets 
of  fine  fustian.  Draughts  were  kept  off  by  a 
pair  of  damask  curtains  '"  of  divers  hewis, 
fassit  with  silk  and  knoppit  (or  tasselled)  with 
gold."  By  day  a  pair  of  head-sheets  was  laid 
across  the  pillows,  a  covering  of  rich  velvet 
lined  with  fustian  was  stretched  over  the  bed, 
while  above  this  was  spread  a  blue  mantle. 

When  morning  came,  and  the  priest,  awaking 
in  his  carved  and  gilded  bed,  cast  his  eyes 
around  him,  he  had  reason  to  be  satisfied  with 
the  beauty  and  luxury  of  his  surroundings,  all 
the  more  so  when  we  remember  how  scantily 
the  bedrooms  of  the  time  were  usually  furnished. 


42        DOMESTIC   LIFE  IN  SCOTLAND 

Round  the  walls  hung  panels  of  arras  work — 
some  perhaps  of  the  charming  "  verdure  "  of 
mediaeval  times,  designed  with  foliage  and 
flowers,  and  varied,  as  was  customary,  with 
little  animals  such  as  squirrels  and  monkeys, 
or  rabbits  disappearing  into  their  burrows  ;  and 
others  with  "  portraiture  of  huntsman,  hawk 
and  hound,"  or  scenes  from  some  scriptural 
story  or  secular  romance.  We  read  of  there 
being  twelve  of  these  panels  in  the  chamber,  but 
probably  some  of  these  had  been  removed  from 
the  hall.  Against  this  tapestried  background  of 
harmonious,  low-toned  colour — low  toned  not 
from  age  but  from  the  subdued  illumination — 
appeared  a  large  brazen  chandillar,  hung  from 
the  ceiling,  with  its  tall  white  candles.  In 
front  of  the  fireplace  stood  a  "  langsadill  bed  of 
carvit  werk  " — an  oak  settle  on  which  the  priest 
may  have  sat  musing  by  the  fire  the  night 
before.  In  a  corner  of  the  room  was  a  press, 
also  of  carved  oak,  with  a  curtain  of  damask 
hanging  before  it  to  protect  the  costly  raiment 
that  lay  within.  A  carved  chest  stood  at  the 
foot  of  the  bed.  It  was  the  practice  to  keep 
valuables  in  the  bedroom,  where  the  owner 
could  keep  Watch  over  them,  and  they  were 
stored  in  chests  and  boxes  of  various  kinds  for 
convenience  of  removal  in  case  of  fire  or  other 
alarm.  Master  Adam  Colquhoun,  having  a 
large  quantity  of  valuables,  required  a  good 


THE  WEALTH  OF  THE  CHURCH  43 

many  receptacles  for  their  security.  Besides 
the  carved  chest  there  was  a  "  shrine,"  which 
was  simply  another  form  of  chest,  having  none 
of  the  sacred  associations  we  attach  to  the 
word  ;  a  "  balhuise,"  the  Scottish  form  of  the 
French  "  bahut"  meaning  a  box,  or  possibly 
in  those  days  a  hutch  ;  a  coffer,  a  "  gardyviat  " 
or  strong  box,  and  a  "  maill  of  ledder  lokkit," 
or  in  other  words  a  locked  leather  trunk. 

The  "  water-pot "  is  of  silver.  Standing  per- 
haps on  one  of  the  larger  chests,  either  by  the 
bedside  or  under  a  window,  there  was  a  sponge,  a 
rubber  and  a  locked  case  of  combs.  The  rubber 
was  apparently  a  brush,  as  we  read  of  hogs' 
bristles  being  used  in  the  sixteenth  century 
"  for  to  make  rubbers  and  brushes."  These 
toilet  accessories  complete  the  furnishing  of  the 
bedroom,  though  we  have  still  to  examine  the 
contents  of  the  chests  and  of  the  clothes-press. 
But  here  the  inventory  supplies  one  of  those 
delightful,  because  so  unexpected,  touches 
which  suddenly  give  life  to  the  pictures  that 
come  down  to  us  of  the  long-forgotten  past. 
Here,  in  his  bed-chamber,  it  seems,  the  parson, 
with  his  taste  for  gay  and  bright-coloured 
things  and  for  amusing  companionship,  keeps 
a  parrot,  which  we  may  imagine  perched  on 
the  back  of  the  settle,  cocking  a  speculative  and 
judicious  eye  over  the  yawnings  and  stretchings 
of  his  newly  awakened  master.  Even  the  clerk 


44        DOMESTIC   LIFE   IN   SCOTLAND 

who  drafted  the  inventory  seems  to  have  felt 
the  abruptness  of  this  apparition  on  his  blame- 
less page,  and  he  discreetly  and  decorously 
softens  it  by  introducing  it  as  "  a  bird,  viz.  a 
parrok." 

Let  us  look  now  at  some  of  the  precious 
things  contained  in  the  coffers  and  chests. 
There  is  a  "  pair  of  beidis  " — that  is,  a  set  of 
beads,  or  a  rosary — "  with  v.  gaudeis,  ilk  gaud 
contenand  ane  double  portingale  ducat,"  the 
whole  being  valued  at  sixty-three  pounds.  A 
cross  of  gold,  weighing  4  oz.,  is  valued  at 
thirty- two  pounds.  These  values  are  in  Scots 
money,  which  at  that  time  was  worth  about  a 
fourth  part  of  English  money  ;  but  if  the  cross 
was  pure  gold,  as  it  no  doubt  was,  it  would 
represent  a  present-day  value  of  sixteen  guineas 
for  the  metal  alone,  apart  from  workmanship 
and  other  elements  which  might  add  to  its 
value.  There  is  also  a  precious  relic,  a  tablet 
of  gold  hung  with  a  small  chain  of  4  oz.  in 
weight,  with  "  ane  pece  of  the  haly  croce  intill 
it "  ;  and  this  is  said  to  be  worth  "  tua  hun- 
dretht  pund."  Most  costly  of  all  is  a  chain  of 
four  hundred  Crowns  of  the  Sun,  valued  at 
five  hundred  pounds  ;  but  this  perhaps  is  to 
be  regarded  as  merely  a  method  of  hoarding 
money.  Among  smaller  objects  of  value  are 
a  signet  of  gold  ;  a  gold  ring  with  a  fine  "  safer  " 
(sapphire)  stone,  worth  one  hundred  pounds  ; 


THE  WEALTH  OF  THE  CHURCH   45 

a  double  Portugal  ducat,  worth  twelve  pounds  ; 
and  a  "  woup  "  or  circlet  of  gold  serving  as  an 
armlet,  of  i  Ib.  weight,  and  representing  a  value 
of  ninety-six  pounds.  In  one  of  the  boxes  there 
is  also  carefully  stowed  away  a  "  pair  of  punze- 
onis  of  claitht  of  gold,  price  x  li." 

Scots  poetry  of  the  time  is  full  of  embittered 
allusions  to  the  faults  and  vices  of  the  clergy. 
In  the  Satyre  of  the  Thrie  Estaitis  their 
rapacity  and  their  oppression  of  the  poor  is 
mercilessly  exposed.  Another  satirical  poem, 
after  dealing  with  their  immorality,  their  osten- 
tatious luxury  and  their  neglect  of  their  charges, 
goes  on  to  say 

So  mony  preistis  cled  up  in  secular  weid 

With  biasing  breistis  casting  their  claithis  on  breid, 

It  is  no  need  to  tell  of  quhome  I  mein, 
So  few  to  tell  the  dargey  and  the  beid 

Within  this  land  was  nevir  hard  nor  sene. 

— the  "  dargey  "  being  the  "  Dirige,"  the 
Office  of  the  Dead,  at  matins.  However  regular 
the  Parson  of  Stobo  may  have  been  at  his  clerical 
duties,  it  must  be  confessed  that  he  did  not  deny 
himself  the  pleasure  of  flaunting  in  "  secular 
weid,"  and  displaying  what  may  fairly  be  called 
a  "  biasing  breist  "  to  all  whom  he  encountered 
in  the  streets  of  Glasgow.  But  before  passing 
judgment  on  his  costume  it  is  fair  to  remember 
that  there  was  in  those  days  no  recognised 
clerical  dress  by  which  the  wearers  could  be 


distinguished  at  a  glance  from  laymen.  A 
thirteenth-century  statute  ordains  that  the 
clergy  shall  not  wear  "  red  or  striped  clothes,  nor 
clothes  conspicuous  for  too  great  shortness  " — 
a  law  which  some  have  interpreted  as  being 
directed  against  the  clerical  use  of  tartan  and 
the  kilt  !  Another  statute,  enacted  only  a  few 
years  after  Colquhoun's  death,  forbade  the  use 
of  "  top-boots,  double-breasted  and  oddly-cut 
coats,  or  coats  of  forbidden  colours,  as  yellow, 
green  and  such  kinds  of  parti-colour,"  and  pre- 
scribed the  wearing  of  cassocks  for  town  use. 
From  these  and  similar  decrees  we  learn  that 
while  the  Church  enjoined  a  becoming  gravity 
of  costume  on  the  clergy,  both  in  regard  to 
colour  and  material,  there  was,  in  fact,  a  con- 
stant tendency  to  disregard  such  counsels  and 
to  indulge  personal  vanity  and  caprice. 

The  Parson  of  Stobo's  ordinary  costume 
seems  to  have  consisted  of  a  doublet  of  cram- 
mesy  velvet  lined  with  scarlet,  with  a  waistcoat 
or  wilecoat,  also  of  scarlet,  worn  over  a  shirt  of 
white  holland  cloth.  His  hose  are  of  Paris 
black  and  they  are  bound  with  gartans  of  silk 
with  gold  tassels  at  the  side.  A  silken  belt,  also 
with  gold  tassels,  encircles  his  waist,  while  at 
his  hip  hangs  a  bag  of  crammesy  velvet  with 
massive  gold  mountings.  Wearing  a  pair  of 
velvet  shoes  he  crosses  to  the  carved  press  in  the 
corner  of  his  chamber  and  draws  aside  the 


THE  WEALTH  OF  THE  CHURCH   47 

curtain,  taking  out  a  rich  gown  of  damask  lined 
with  marten  sable.  This  he  throws  round  his 
shoulders  and  fastens  in  front  with  a  button  of 
wrought  gold,  matching  a  similar  button  on  the 
breast  of  his  doublet.  To  complete  his  toilet 
he  puts  on  a  "  litel  bonet  of  welvot  sewit  with 
gold,"  tucks  a  pair  of  cloth  gloves  "  pirnit  "  or 
interwoven  with  gold  into  his  belt  ;  and  then, 
fastening  on  his  "  quhinger,"  which  is  ourgilt 
with  gold,  and  slipping  his  silver  toothpick  into 
the  bag  at  his  waist,  he  is  ready  for  the  day's 
duties  and  adventures. 

What  there  is  of  ecclesiastical  costume,  or 
vestments,  is  kept  not  in  the  bedchamber  but 
partly  in  some  small  room  or  press  near  the 
kitchen  on  the  ground-floor  ;  so  that  in  passing 
out  to  the  Cathedral  he  could  conveniently  lay 
his  hands  upon  whatever  might  be  required. 
There  was  "  ane  round  preistis  bonet  " — the 
biretta  which  was  prescribed  as  conforming 
with  "  the  ancient  custom  of  the  clergy,"  and 
which  they  had  to  be  enjoined  to  remove  in 
church,  "  especially  in  time  of  divine  service." 
Three  surplaits,  or  surplices,  are  mentioned  : 
one  of  crape,  one  of  lawn  and  one  of  holland. 
Also  a  "  hude  of  crammase  satyn  with  welvot, 
drawin  with  ane  string  of  gold,  price  xx  li  "  ; 
an  "  almos,"  or  almuce  (L.  almucia),  valued  at 
xl  li.  and  another  cape  "  firrit  with  spottit 
arming  "  (ermine)  valued  at  x  li. 


48       DOMESTIC  LIFE  IN  SCOTLAND 

It  is  difficult  to  arrive  at  a  fair  estimate  of 
the  costliness  of  the  sumptuous  apparel  that  has 
been  described.  No  mere  conversion  of  Scots 
money  into  sterling  is  of  much  use  as  a  basis 
for  a  comparison  with  present-day  expenditure, 
for  the  modern  use  of  machinery  in  manufac- 
tures, and  modern  facilities  of  intercourse  with 
foreign  countries  and  many  other  causes,  have 
accustomed  us  to  a  scale  of  relative  values  that 
is  very  unlike  that  of  mediaeval  times.  We  know 
from  Halyburton's  Ledger,  for  example,  that 
velvet  costs  ten  or  twelve  times  as  much  as  Arras 
tapestry  of  the  quality  usually  imported  into 
Scotland.  It  seems  surprising,  too,  to  us  that 
a  mantle  or  gown  whose  materials  cost  perhaps 
from  sixty  to  a  hundred  pounds,  should  not 
have  exceeded  five  shillings  for  the  making. 
Such  facts,  while  easily  enough  explained,  illus- 
trate the  difficulty  of  comparing  mediaeval  and 
modern  expenditure.  However,  it  is  enough 
to  note  the  Parson  of  Stobo's  preference  for 
velvet,  the  most  costly  of  all  the  ordinary 
materials  in  use,  and  especially  for  crimson 
velvet,  which  was  more  expensive  than  other 
colours  ;  and  how  his  gown  is  lined  with 
marten  sable,  the  most  expensive  of  furs  ;  and 
how  almost  everything  he  wears  is  ornamented 
with  gold,  so  that  even  the  bag  that  hangs  at  his 
waist  has  "  irnes,"  or  mountings,  that  would 
melt  down  into  thirty-three  of  our  present-day 


THE  WEALTH  OF  THE  CHURCH   49 

sovereigns.  However  picturesque,  to  our 
modern  eyes,  may  be  the  splendidly  arrayed 
figure  of  the  Parson  of  Stobo,  his  costume 
shows  little  sympathy  with  the  ideal  of  an 
ascetic  frugality,  nor  can  it  be  said  to  exemplify 
that  sobriety  of  colour  and  material  which  was 
prescribed  by  the  authority  of  the  Church. 

Leaving  the  bedchamber  we  enter  a  small 
but  extremely  interesting  room,  described  as 
"  the  oratour  within  his  hous."  Its  principal 
feature  is,  of  course,  the  altar,  placed  against 
the  eastern  wall  and  hung  with  a  frontal  of 
black  velvet  with  fringes  of  gold.  It  has  two 
coverings  of  fine  holland  cloth.  On  the  top 
of  the  altar  rests  the  "  altar  stane  "  or  super- 
altar,  the  small  consecrated  slab  which  was 
laid  on  the  middle  of  an  altar  not  itself  conse- 
crated. Persons  of  importance  were  sometimes 
granted  the  privilege  of  having  one  of  these 
consecrated  altar  stones  to  carry  with  them 
while  travelling,  so  that  they  could  have  a  mass 
said  by  their  chaplains  even  if  there  were  no 
fixed  consecrated  altar  of  which  use  could  be 
made.  On  the  altar  stood  the  sacred  vessels — 
"  ane  chalice  and  patene  of  silver  ourgilt  with 
gold,"  and,  on  a  silver  plate,  two  silver  "  crowat- 
tis,"  or  cruets,  containing  respectively  the  wine 
and  the  water  for  the  Eucharist.  The  plate 
served  the  purpose  of  catching  any  drip  from 
the  druets.  The/re  was  also — what  was  very 

4 


50        DOMESTIC   LIFE  IN   SCOTLAND 

unusual  except  in  richly  furnished  churches — 
a  silver  spoon,  used  to  measure  out  the  small 
quantity  of  water  mixed  with  the  wine  in  pre- 
paring the  chalice  ;  and  employed  also  for 
removing  flies  or  the  like  from  the  chalice.  A 
silver  sacring  bell,  which  was  rung  at  the  conse- 
cration, also  stood  on  the  altar.  And,  finally, 
there  was  a  cushion  made  of  cloth  of  silver,  on 
which  was  laid  a  "  mess  buke,"  or  missal,  of 
parchment,  its  pages  penned  by  hand  in  black 
and  red  Gothic  lettering  and  richly  illuminated 
in  colours  and  gold. 

At  each  end  of  the  altar  a  rod  projected  from 
the  wall  and  supported  a  damask  curtain  which 
hung  close  to,  and  in  a  plane  parallel  to,  the  end 
of  the  altar. 

In  the  oratory  too  were  kept  the  vestments  ; 
a  chasuble  which,  like  the  altar  frontal,  was  of 
black  velvet ;  a  stole  and  a  "  fannale  "  (fannon) 
or  maniple,  both  made  of  velvet,  the  maniple 
being  worn  on  the  priest's  left  wrist ;  an 
"  amyt,"  or  amice,  which  was  a  linen  hood 
lowered  so  as  to  encircle  the  neck  ;  and  a  belt, 
probably  made  to  match  the  vestments  and 
taking  the  place  of  the  more  usual  girdle  of 
white  cord. 

The  only  piece  of  furniture  in  the  oratory 
that  remains  to  be  mentioned  was  a  carved  desk 
or  prie-dieu.  On  its  top  lay  a  large  velvet 
cushion  on  which  rested  the  priest's  "  orasoun 


THE  WEALTH  OF  THE  CHURCH   51 

buke,  coverit  with  grene  velvet."  This  was  no 
doubt  an  illuminated  Book  of  Hours,  containing 
the  abridged  choir  services  in  honour  of  the 
Virgin,  consisting  of  psalms,  lessons  from  scrip- 
ture and  anthems.  The  desk  was  probably 
made  with  a  side  opening  to  a  sort  of  aumrie 
with  a  shelf.  Here,  in  a  double  row,  were 
arranged  the  parson's  "  librell  bukis,"  as  they 
are  called  to  distinguish  them  from  the  purely 
devotional  books  which  have  already  been 
mentioned.  They  are  secular  books  designed 
to  cultivate  the  mind,  providing  what  we  still 
call  a  "  liberal  education."  Among  these 
volumes  are  "  tua  cours  of  the  law,  with 
utheris  doctouris  thair-upone,"  and  evidence 
still  survives  that  the  Parson  of  Stobo  had  taken 
advantage  of  his  opportunities  and  was  looked 
upon  as  a  man  well  versed  in  the  law.  There 
are  also  works  on  "  theologie'and  vther  science." 
In  the  prologue  to  Sir  David  Lindsay's  contem- 
porary poem,  The  Tragedie  of  the  Cardinal, 
he  tells  us  how 

Not  lang  ago,  eftir  the  hour  of  prime, 
Secreitlie  sitting  in  my  oratorie, 

I  tuke  ane  buke  till  occupy  the  time, 
Quhair  I  fand  monie  tragedie  and  storie 
Quhilk  Johne  Boccas  had  put  in  memory, 

and  we  may  infer  that  it  was  usual  to  keep  books 
in  the  oratory  and  to  make  use  of  it  as  a  quiet 
study  for  secular  as  well  as  religious  reading. 


52        DOMESTIC   LIFE  IN   SCOTLAND 

Passing  to  the  Hall,  we  find  a  dignified  apart- 
ment whose  walls  are  hung  with  some  of  the 
panels  of  tapestry  that  were  mentioned  as  being 
found  in  the  bed-chamber.  The  wide  fire- 
place, under  its  carved  stone  lintel,  is  fitted 
with  a  "  chimnay "  or  grate,  of  iron.  The 
furnishing  is  in  accordance  with  the  usual 
mediaeval  scheme,  yet  it  illustrates  too  the 
advance  towards  a  higher  standard  both  of 
comfort  and  of  conscious  artistic  interest.  The 
meit-burde,  with  its  trestles  and  forms,  stands 
at  one  end  of  the  room  and  is  spread  with  the 
usual "  coveringis  and  claithis  thereof."  Against 
the  wall  on  one  side  stands  a  "  cop  burde  of 
eistland  burde  carvit  werk,  quhair  the  silver 
weschel  stude."  The  cupboard,  as  a  piece  of 
domestic  furniture,  was  well  known  in  England 
in  the  fourteenth  century,  but  this  is  perhaps 
the  first  mention  of  its  use  in  a  private  house 
in  Scotland.  It  was  fitted  with  shelves  and 
arranged  so  that  the  contents  were  displayed 
when  the  doors  were  thrown  open.  In  Scotland 
a  counter  or  side  table  was  all  that  was  wanted 
in  most  private  houses,  as  there  was  no  profusion 
of  silver  vessels  requiring  special  arrangements 
for  their  display.  While  the  Parson  of  Stobo's 
silver  was  of  such  quantity  and  value  as  to  call 
for  a  cupboard,  it  is  interesting  to  find  that  his 
hall  also  contains  a  double  counter  of  Flemish 
origin.  It  was  no  doubt  used  as  a  buffet  or 


THE  WEALTH  OF  THE  CHURCH  53 

service  table,  and  this  is  confirmed  by  the  fact 
that  the  luxurious  owner  had  provided  "  ii 
coveringis,  i  to  the  counter  i  other  to  the  burde 
of  the  hall,  maid  of  cusching  werk."  These 
were  no  doubt  of  Flemish  quilted  work,  and 
they  are  an  unusual  luxury,  costing  about  four- 
teen pounds  for  the  two.  Of  the  pieces  of  furni- 
ture mentioned  the  counter  was  evidently  the 
most  important,  as  it  is  valued  at  twenty  pounds, 
whereas  the  cupboard  only  reaches  half  that  sum, 
and  the  hall  table,  along  with  its  forms  and 
trestles,  is  put  at  less  than  three  pounds.  The 
other  furniture  consisted  of  a  "  meit  almery  for 
conserving  of  napry,  silit  abone,"  or  having  a 
panelled  top  ;  a  settle,  a  chair  and  a  "  buffat 
stule,"  all  described  as  of  carved  work.  Up- 
holstered seats  were  of  course  as  yet  unknown, 
but  the  hall  was  provided  with  "  i  dosane  of  fyne 
grete  cuschingis  of  Flanderis  werk  "  for  use  on 
the  settle  and  other  seats,  as  well  as  for  foot- 
stools. They  were  stuffed  with  feathers 
and  were  probably  covered  with  verdure 
tapestry. 

But  perhaps  the  most  interesting  feature  of 
the  furnishing  of  the  hall  is  the  silver  plate 
which  stood  on  the  cupboard.  Such  a  display 
was  of  course  characteristic  of  mediaeval  times, 
though  it  is  rather  exceptional  in  early  Scottish 
records.  There  was  little  accumulated  wealth 
in  Scotland  ;  her  exports  did  not  pay  for  her 


54        DOMESTIC   LIFE   IN   SCOTLAND 

imports,  and  there  was  also  a  constant  drain  of 
money  due  to  other  causes. 

I  dar  weill  say,  within  this  fiftie  yeir 
Rome  has  ressavit  furth  of  this  regioun 
For  bullis  and  benefice  quhilk  they  buy  full  deir 
Quhilk  micht  full  weill  have  payit  ane  kingis  ransoum. 
Preistis  suld  na  moir  our  substance  sa  consoum 
Sending  yeirly  sa  greit  riches  to  Rome. 

Still,  as  Scotland  gradually  gained  in  wealth, 
and  as  more  settled  conditions  gave  the  pos- 
sessors of  valuables  some  guarantee  of  security, 
it  became  usual  for  the  well-to-do  in  Scotland, 
as  elsewhere,  to  "  garnish  their  cupboards  with 
plate  "  ;  so  that  a  Scottish  poet,  calling  on  his 
countrymen  to  celebrate  the  destruction  of  the 
Spanish  Armada,  said  : 

Expose  your  gold  and  shyning  silver  bright 
On  covered  cop-buirdes  set  in  opin  sight ; 
Ouer-gilted  coups,  with  carved  covers  clear, 
Fine  precious  stanes,  quhair  they  may  best  appear  ; 
Lavers  in  ranks,  and  silver  baissings  shine 
Saltfats  outshorne,  and  glasses  crystalline. 

In  Master  Adam  Colquhoun's  day  such  dis- 
plays were  less  common,  and  his  cupboard 
must  have  been  considered  an  imposing  one. 
It  consisted  of  about  forty  separate  vessels  and 
dishes,  weighing  in  all  something  like  65  Ibs. 
troy  weight  of  silver.  There  were  five  flagons  of 
graduated  sizes,  the  largest  containing  half  a 
gallon  ;  three  stoups,  the  largest  containing  a 
quart ;  and  four  silver  "  pieces  "  with  their 


THE  WEALTH  OF  THE  CHURCH  55 

covers,  the  largest  containing  a  pint.  The  most 
massive  of  these  vessels  weighed  as  much  as 
8  Ib.  each.  There  was  also  a  set  of  silver 
trenchers,  a  silver  basin  and  laver,  a  silver  cup 
and  a  goblet,  each  with  its  cover  ;  a  silver  maser 
and  its  cover  both  doubly  overgilt  ;  a  set  of  two 
dozen  silver  spoons,  weighing  2  oz.  each  ;  a 
silver  salt-fatt  with  cover  of  silver  doubly  over- 
gilt ;  a  silver  "  gerdyn,"  here  apparently  mean- 
ing a  retort-shaped  bottle  ;  a  chargeour,  a  plate 
and  a  "  compterfute,"  all  of  silver,  and  two 
silver  dishes,  one  described  as  a  "  braid  "  dish 
and  the  other  as  a  "  luggit  "  dish,  meaning  a 
dish  with  projecting  handles  at  opposite  sides. 
Besides  all  these  there  is  a  pair  of  silver  chan- 
dillars  and,  last  but  not  least  interesting,  "  ane 
cais  of  carving  knyfis,  Flanderis  making,  doubli'e 
ourgilt."  The  set  contains  twelve  small  knives, 
three  "  mekle  "  knives  and  a  fork.  The  use  of 
such  a  set  of  table  knives  marks  a  considerable 
advance  on  the  earlier  practice,  according  to 
which  each  man  used  the  knife  he  carried  about 
with  him.  The  mention  of  a  fork  has  a  special 
interest.  Forks  were  not  in  general  use  in  Eng- 
land before  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  cen- 
tury, though  they  were  sometimes  used  for  fruit. 
Thus  Piers  Gaveston  had  three  silver  forks  for 
eating  pears,  and  an  English  will  of  1463  be- 
queathes  "  my  silver  forke  for  grene  gyngour." 
Though  the  fork  in  the  manse  of  Stobo  is  cased 


56       DOMESTIC   LIFE  IN  SCOTLAND 

along  with  knives  intended  for  meat,  the  fact 
that  there  is  but  one,  along  with  what  we  know 
of  mediaeval  usage,  suggests  that  it  was  not 
used  for  meat  with  the  knives,  but  kept  for 
fruit  and  sweetmeats. 

A  cupboard  so  well  garnished  with  silver 
plate  is  apt  to  suggest  to  us  a  rather  purse-proud 
love  of  display.  Yet  this  is  hardly  fair,  as  it 
leaves  out  of  account  the  conditions  and  habits 
of  the  time.  Wherever  there  was  a  surplus  of 
income  over  necessary  expenditure  there  was, 
in  varying  degree,  according  to  the  amount  of 
that  surplus  and  to  the  taste  and  temperament 
of  the  individual,  a  tendency  to  the  accumula- 
tion of  plate  and  other  valuables.  It  must  be 
remembered  that  banking  did  not  as  yet  exist 
in  Scotland  ;  though  we  find  in  Halyburton's 
Ledger  that  even  in  the  fifteenth  century  sums 
were  sent  from  Scotland  to  the  great  banking 
houses  of  Antwerp.  We  read  too  of  consider- 
able sums  being  forwarded  to  Halyburton  to 
trade  with  "  for  the  behuf  and  profyt  "  of  some 
of  his  correspondents  in  Scotland.  But  on  the 
whole  there  was  little  opening  for  the  invest- 
ment of  accumulated  savings.  To  lend  money 
at  interest  was  still  apt  to  expose  the  lender  to 
the  odium  associated  with  the  practice  of  usury, 
as  well  as  to  legal  penalties.  The  alternatives 
were  thus  to  hoard  money  or  to  expend  it  in 
plate  or  rich  furnishings  which  bore  agreeable 


THE  WEALTH  OF  THE  CHURCH      57 

and  unmistakable  witness  to  the  prosperity  of 
the  owner.  In  Harrison's  contemporary  ac- 
count of  Elizabethan  England  we  are  told  that 
towards  the  end  of  a  lease  a  successful  farmer 
might  have  six  or  seven  years'  rent  lying  by 
him,  "  besides  a  fair  garnish  of  pewter  on  his 
cupboard,  with  so  much  more  in  odd  vessel 
going  about  the  house,  three  or  four  feather 
beds,  so  many  coverlids  and  carpets  of  tapestry, 
a  silver  salt,  a  bowl  for  wine,  if  not  a  whole  nest, 
and  a  dozen  of  spoons  to  furnish  up  the  suit." 
Such  agricultural  prosperity  was  an  outcome  of 
the  expansion  of  English  trade  under  Elizabeth, 
and  so  rapid  had  been  the  advance  towards 
luxury  that  there  were  men  then  living  who 
remembered  when  they  had  "  laid  on  straw 
pallets  or  rough  mats  covered  only  with  a 
sheet,  under  coverlets  made  of  dagswain,  and  a 
good  round  log  under  their  heads  instead  of  a 
bolster  or  a  pillow."  In  Scotland  there  was  no 
such  sudden  increase  of  prosperity.  Wealth 
was  in  fewer  hands,  and  chiefly,  as  we  have 
seen,  in  the  hands  of  the  Church.  Even  among 
the  nobles  there  was  comparatively  little  silver 
to  display,  most  of  the  vessels  in  domestic  use 
being  of  pewter. 

The  Kitchen  need  not  detain  us  long.  There 
are  but  two  pieces  of  furniture,  one  a  "  weschell 
almerie,"  which  was  probably  a  plainly  made 
kitchen  dish-press,  and  the  other  a  "  dressing- 


58        DOMESTIC   LIFE  IN  SCOTLAND 

burd  " — in  other  words  a  table  on  which  meat 
and  other  articles  of  food  were  dressed.  No 
form  or  stool  or  other  kind  of  seat  is  provided, 
nor  is  there  any  other  concession  to  comfort. 
Everything  gives  way  to  the  claims  of  cookery. 
There  are  cauldrons,  kettles,  "  mekle  "  pots  and 
"  litel  "  pots,  frying  pans,  goose  pans,  roasting 
irons,  fish  "  skummers,"  "  mekle  speits  "  and 
"  litel  speits,"  stoups,  pitchers  and  "  piggis,"  be- 
sides the  special  paraphernalia  of  the  bake-house 
and  brew-house.  A  "  capon-cave  "  shows  that 
poultry  were  kept,  and  the  supply  of  provisions 
is  on  a  scale  that  suggests  that  the  household 
was  given  to  what  a  contemporary  calls  "  large 
tabling  and  belly  cheer."  There  are,  for 
example,  eight  marts,  or  salted  carcases,  of 
beef  ;  a  pipe  of  salmon,  containing  eight  dozen  ; 
a  pipe  of  Loch  Fyne  herring  ;  an  ark  contain- 
ing forty  bolls  of  meal  ;  six  stone  of  butter, 
and  a  "  kebboc  "  of  cheese  weighing  22  Ib. 
Such  supplies  must  have  relieved  Master  Adam 
of  any  acute  anxiety  as  to  his  daily  bread,  particu- 
larly as  beneficed  clergymen  were  enjoined  to 
fare  frugally  and  temperately  at  table,  and  to 
avoid  delicacy  and  superfluity  in  meat  and 
drinks.  His  fuel  was  also  secure,  for  there  is  a 
mow  (or  heap)  of  coals  containing  as  much  as 
eighty  loads  ;  and  his  barn  is  well  stored  with 
wheat,  oats,  "  beir,"  peas  and  hay. 

Even  in  the  stable  there  is  much  that  is 


THE  WEALTH  OF  THE  CHURCH  59 

characteristic  and  suggestive.  His  riding  saddle 
has  a  "  curpale  "  or  crupper  of  velvet ;  and 
there  is  a  green  "  horse-house,"  the  trappings  of 
cloth  with  which  the  horse  was  draped  in 
mediaeval  times.  In  the  stable  he  keeps  his 
riding  kit,  consisting  of  a  damask  riding  gown 
lined  with  black,  a  velvet  hood  lined  with 
damask,  and  a  black  cloak  faced  with  velvet. 
Here  too  we  find  his  armour,  a  habergeon  of 
mail,  a  pair  of  brigandines  for  back  and  front, 
a  "  pesane  "  or  gorget  of  mail,  splints  for  legs 
and  arms,  gloves  of  plate  and  also  of  mail, 
helmets  and  other  headgear,  and  a  two-handed 
sword.  The  clergy,  it  may  be  mentioned,  were 
forbidden  to  bear  arms,  yet  a  fight  between  two 
chaplains  armed  with  "  hyngers  "  is  recorded 
in  the  Ripon  Chapter  Acts  (Surtees  Society)  in 
the  year  1503,  and  there  are  other  evidences  that 
the  prohibition  was  not  literally  observed. 
There  is  also  a  single-handed  sword  of  a  more 
elegant  and  decorative  character.  It  is  doubly 
overgilt  with  gold,  has  a  scabbard  of  velvet, 
"  crampet,"  or  provided  with  guards,  of  silver  ; 
and  it  is  slung  from  a  belt  of  figured  velvet.  To 
carry  on  more  peaceful  occasions  there  is  a 
"  ganging  staf  of  bressale,  tippit  with  silver  at 
baith  ends  and  in  the  middis,"  bressale  being 
brazil-wood,  from  which  the  country  of  Brazil 
derived  its  name.  We  find  too  that  the  Parson 
was  a  devotee  of  sport.  He  has  a  rather 


60        DOMESTIC  LIFE   IN  SCOTLAND 

dandified  outfit  for  archery — a  hand-bow,  arrow- 
bag  and  "  caver  "  (quiver)  with  arrows, "  ane  bras 
of  ovir  bene  tippit  with  silver,"  meaning,  I  sup- 
pose, an  ivory  arm-guard  with  silver  mountings  ; 
and  a  shooting  glove  "  sewit  with  silk  and 
knoppit  with  gold."  Another  form  of  sport 
seems  to  have  interested  him.  Among  the 
popular  grievances  referred  to  in  the  Generall 
Salyre  is  the  prevalence  of  coursing,  to  the 
destruction  of  the  crops  : 

Sic  coursing,  evin  and  morn, 
Quhilk  slay  is  the  corn,  and  fruct  that  growis  grene. 

and  we  find  that  the  Parson  of  Stobo  has  a  set 
of  "  rais  cuppillis  of  silver  "  with  silk  collars 
"  spenlit  "  (spindled  ?)  with  silver,  which  were 
no  doubt  used  in  coursing  for  releasing  the 
dogs.  He  has  also  a  silken  dog-leash  and  a  dog- 
collar  studded  with  silver.  Along  with  his 
taste  for  sport  goes  a  love  of  animals,  and  we 
find  that,  besides  the  parrot  indoors,  he  keeps 
outside  a  tame  hind  and  a  crane. 

One  other  remarkable  possession  is  to  be 
found  in  the  stable — a  "  streking  knok  with 
bellis  efferand  thairto."  Clocks  were  seldom 
found  in  Scotland  at  this  period  unless  in 
churches  and  other  public  buildings.  How 
Master  Adam  came  to  own  a  chiming  clock  is 
hard  to  say,  and  why  it  should  be  kept  in  the 
stable,  unless  the  bells  "  efferand  thairto  " 


THE  WEALTH  OF  THE  CHURCH   61 

were  too  loud  to  be  tolerated  in  the  house,  and 
had  to  be  so  far  removed  that  distance  might 
soften  their  stridency  and  render  them  tuneful 
and  mellow  enough  to  please  the  epicurean 
fancy  of  the  fastidious  priest. 

It  is  wellnigh  four  hundred  years  since,  per- 
haps with  these  very  bells  sounding  in  his 
ears,  Master  Adam  Colquhoun  drew  his  last 
breath,  and  the  stiffening  body  was  left  lying 
on  the  gilded  bed,  in  the  shadow  of  the  damask 
curtains  with  their  fringes  of  silk  and  tassels  of 
gold.  It  is  not  for  us  to  allot  to  him  the  fate 
either  of  Dives  or  of  Lazarus.  He  probably 
left  behind  an  amiable  memory.  His  collection 
of  "  librell  bukis  "  on  the  law,  theology  and 
"  uther  science  "  shows  that  he  was  not  one  of 
those  whose  ignorance  and  illiteracy  disgraced 
the  Church.  If  his  relations  with  Jane  Boyd 
cannot  be  justified,  they  were  at  any  rate  only 
too  characteristic  of  the  time  ;  he  seems  at  least 
to  have  been  constant  to  her,  and  if  the  laws  of 
the  Church  had  permitted,  he  would  doubtless 
have  been  an  exemplary  husband.  How  far 
the  manse  of  Stobo  may  be  taken  as  representa- 
tive of  the  homes  of  the  Pre-Reformation  clergy 
is  a  question  which  we  have  not  enough  evidence 
to  decide  ;  but  it  is  at  least  remarkable  that  it 
presents  us  with  a  far  more  opulent  and 
luxurious  picture  than  any  contemporary  noble- 
man's house  of  which  a  record  has  been  pre- 


62        DOMESTIC   LIFE   IN   SCOTLAND 

served.  We  are  glad  to  remember  those  of  the 
clergy  whose  devotion  and  spirituality  survived 
the  corrupting  and  disintegrating  tendencies  of 
the  time,  and  were  proof  against  the  relaxed 
standards  of  the  age.  But  the  ostentatious 
wealth  and  worldliness  of  the  clergy  are  so 
constant  a  theme,  not  only  in  the  works  of  the 
satirists  and  in  the  pages  of  impartial  history, 
but  also,  as  evils  to  be  combated,  in  the  Statutes 
of  the  Church  itself,  that  they  must  be  accepted 
as  outstanding  features  of  contemporary  life. 
Can  we  wonder,  then,  if  the  people,  groaning 
under  the  exactions  of  the  clergy  and  confronted 
with  their  material  standards  and  their  flagrant 
immoralities,  and  already,  behind  locked  doors, 
reading  in  their  own  homely  tongue  the  un- 
worldly teaching  of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount, 
began  to  form  opinions^of  their  own  on  the  fit- 
ness of  the  Church  as  a  vehicle  and  exponent  of 
the  teaching  of  Christ  ? 


LECTURE   III 

THE  RISE   OF  THE    BURGHERS ;  A  CLOTH 

MERCHANT'S   HOUSE;    AND   SOME 

DECORATIVE  ARTS 

THE   SIXTEENTH   CENTURY — Continued 

The  three  estates — Rising  importance  of  the  burgher 
class — Dwelling-house  of  a  sixteenth-century  cloth  mer- 
chant— The  hall — Armour — The  bedchamber — Agricul- 
tural implements — The  booth — "  Ane  hingand  brod  of  oley 
cullouris " — Early  interest  in  painting  in  Scotland — 
Pictures  and  painted  cloths — The  burgesses  as  art  patrons 
and  introducers  of  foreign  products  and  ideas — The  "  keiking 
glass  " — The  alarm  clock — Some  items  in  the  inventory  of 
Sir  David  Lyndsay  of  the  Mount — Wood-carving  in 
Scotland — Domestic  panelling — Linenfold  and  other  pat- 
terns— Carved  wood  from  Montrose — At  Ethie  Castle — 
From  Threave  Castle — Cardinal  Beaton's  panels  at  Balfour 
House — Embroidery  in  early  times — Its  development  in 
the  sixteenth  century — Queen  Mary's  embroideries — "  Story 
work  " — Various  examples — The  Rehoboam  set — The  Earl 
of  Morton's  set — Probable  date  and  origin. 

THE  Scottis  peple,"  says  Bishop  Les- 
lie, writing  towards  the  end  of  the 
sixteenth  century,  "  is  diuidet  in  thrie 
ordouris  ;  ane,  of  thame  quhais  pietie  and  hett 
studdie  of  religione  had  addicted  themselves 
planelie  to  serue  the  Kirke  ;    the  secunde,  of 
thame  quhais  nobilitie  and  hienes  of  blude  hes 
placed  (them)  in  the  secunde  degrie  of  the  com- 
moune  weil  ;   the  thrid,  of  thame  quhome  the 

63 


64        DOMESTIC   LIFE   IN  SCOTLAND 

tounes  accnawleges  among  thame  to  be  frank 
and  frie."  In  the  political  development  of  the 
country  each  of  these  orders,  or  estates,  exer- 
cised in  turn  a  predominating  influence.  It  was 
the  nobility  whom  the  earlier  Jameses  had  to 
conciliate,  and  whose  support  had  to  be  secured 
when  a  national  policy  was  to  be  carried  out. 
But  so  heavy  were  the  losses  sustained  by  the 
nobility  at  Flodden  that  from  that  time  the 
balance  of  power  passed  into  the  hands  of  the 
Church.  This  position  of  influence  the  Church 
made  use  of  to  encourage  James  V  in  his 
adhesion  to  the  French  Alliance  and  the  Catho- 
lic religion.  As  time  went  on,  however,  the 
popular  revolt  against  the  abuses  and  exactions 
of  the  Church  was  reinforced  by  a  growing 
recognition  of  the  fact  that  England,  rather  than 
France,  was  designed  by  nature  to  be  Scotland's 
ally.  The  pressure  of  such  great  questions  as 
these  on  the  minds  of  the  people,  and  the 
groping  for  practical  methods  of  settling  them, 
helped  to  train  and  educate  them  for  the  influ- 
ence and  responsibilities  to  which  they  were 
destined  in  turn  to  succeed  when  the  Reforma- 
tion deprived  the  Church  of  Rome  of  her 
temporal  power  in  Scotland.  It  was  in  1572 
that  Sir  Henry  Killigrew,  the  English  Agent  in 
Scotland,  recorded  his  often-quoted  observa- 
rion  as  to  the  nobles  and  burgesses  "  taking 
more  on  them,"  and  from  this  time  forward  it 


THE   RISE   OF  THE   BURGHERS       65 

was  with  the  "  Estaite  of  the  Commoune 
Peple  "  that  the  Scottish  monarchs  had  to 
reckon. 

In  the  preceding  lectures  we  have  considered 
the  homes  of  the  first  two  of  these  three  orders, 
examining  the  castle  of  a  feudal  lord  in  the 
fifteenth  century,  and  the  manse  of  a  Pre- 
Reformation  priest  in  the  sixteenth.  It  is 
fitting  that  we  should  now  turn  to  the  homes  of 
the  burgesses,  of  whose  rise  to  influence  and  of 
whose  advance  in  domestic  comfort  the  records 
of  the  time  supply  clear  evidence.  Let  us  glance, 
therefore,  for  a  few  moments  at  the  domestic 
surroundings  of  Frances  Spottiswood,  a  cloth 
merchant  who  died  in  Edinburgh  about  1540. 
One  incident  of  his  career  is  recorded,  and  is 
worth  mentioning  because  of  the  picture  it 
calls  up  of  a  sight  which  often  met  the  eyes  of 
townsmen  in  those  unsettled  times.  He  is 
named  in  the  Edinburgh  Burgh  Records  as  one 
of  a  small  group  of  citizens  who,  in  1521, 
appeared  before  a  notary  and  formally  protested 
against  the  "  takin  doun  of  the  ii  heids  of  the 
chalmerlane  and  his  brother  of  the  tolbuth 
end,"  and  refused  to  be  responsible  for  the 
consequences  of  the  removal  of  those  ghastly 
trophies. 

The  merchant's  booth,  where  he  plies  his 
trade  wearing  a  brown  doublet  with  scarlet 
hose,  and  girt  with  a  silken  belt  from  which 
5 


66        DOMESTIC   LIFE   IN  SCOTLAND 

hangs  a  purse  with  gold  tassels,  occupies  the 
ground-floor  of  his  house,  and  the  entrance  to 
the  dwelling-house  above  is  by  an  outside  fore- 
stair.  Ascending  these  steps  we  find  ourself  in 
the  hall  or  principal  room,  where  an  arras 
"  hingar  "  or  hanging  covers  one  wall,  and  the 
long  table  has  a  covering  which  is  also  of 
tapestry.  The  lower  half  of  the  two  small 
windows  is  shuttered  instead  of  glazed,  and  in 
the  shutters  oval  holes  are  cut  to  allow  the  occu- 
pants to  thrust  their  heads  through  and  watch 
the  street  life  below.  The  merchant's  own 
chair  stands  at  one  end  of  the  table,  while  there 
is  a  form  for  his  wife  and  young  son.  At  one 
side  stands  a  double  counter,  and  on  this  may 
be  set  out  some  of  the  larger  tin  dishes  and, 
more  prominently  placed,  a  silver  maser,  a 
silver  "  piece  "  or  cup,  and  a  silver  salt-cellar 
enriched  with  gold.  These  and  a  set  of  a 
dozen  silver  spoons  testify  to  the  burgess' 
prosperity.  The  smaller  trenchers  and  other 
tin  dishes  are  kept  in  a  vessel-aumrie,  where 
also  are  folded  away  the  dornick  tablecloth, 
napkins  and  towels.  The  furniture  is  not 
of  a  merely  rough  and  utilitarian  kind,  for  there 
is  a  carved  oak  meat-aumrie  and  an  oak  settle 
also  richly  carved.  Here  too  is  kept  his  "  stand 
of  harness  "  or  suit  of  armour,  with  a  jack  and 
steel  bonnet  and  a  two-handed  sword  ;  for  a 
merchant  or  craftsman  had  to  be  a  good  man 


THE  RISE   OF  THE  BURGHERS       67 

at  arms,  and  was  required  to  be  ready  to  take 
his  part  in  defending  the  community  from  vio- 
lence. Belongings  of  a  more  personal  kind  are 
an  ivory  stamp  or  seal  tipped  with  silver,  a  gold 
signet  ring,  an  ivory  rosary  and  a  gold  pendant 
in  the  form  of  a  head  of  St.  John. 

Adjoining  the  hall  is  the  bedchamber,  where 
there  is  a  large  stand  bed  fitted  with  curtains  of, 
"  say,"  a  serge-like  cloth  sometimes  containing 
a  little  silk,  and  a  bedcover  of  arras  ;  while  a 
"  futegang  "  or  step  was  arranged  by  the  side 
of  the  bed.  There  is  also  a  press  containing  two 
closed  receptacles  in  which  clothes  can  be  laid, 
and,  as  further  provision  for  clothes  and  bed- 
linen,  a  large  "  schryne  "  or  box,  and  a  travelling 
chest  which  may  have  accompanied  the  cloth- 
merchant  on  his  visits  to  Flanders.  A  sponge 
and  comb  are  mentioned,  the  sponge  here 
meaning  a  brush,  and  a  towel  hung  on  a  pin  on 
the  wall  ;  the  only  basin  mentioned  is  "  ane 
hali  watter  fat ' '  or  holy  water  basin .  Along  with 
these  there  is  a  mirror — perhaps  the  earliest 
mention  of  a  mirror  as  a  piece  of  bedroom 
furniture  in  Scottish  records.  A  spinning- 
wheel  and  implements  for  wool  carding  tell  us 
of  the  home  employments  of  the  merchant's 
wife,  who  seems  to  have  been  considerably 
younger  than  her  husband,  for  after  his  death 
at  a  good  old  age  she  married  again. 

Among  other  significant  possessions  of  Spot- 


68        DOMESTIC   LIFE  IN  SCOTLAND 

tiswood  were  a  horse  with  a  plough,  "  ane  par 
of  harrowis,"  a  cart  and  sledge  and  other 
agricultural  implements.  These  remind  us 
that  the  towns  were  still  rural  communities 
largely  dependent  on  the  cultivation  of  the 
"  town  acres  "  on  their  outskirts,  and  the  cloth- 
merchant  had  no  doubt  an  allotment  of  the 
common  land  on  the  usual  nineteen  years' 
lease. 

In  the  booth  below  there  is  a  low  curtain  of 
arras  used  to  partition  off  part  of  the  room,  a 
"  burd  till  lay  claith  apone  "  and  other  suitable 
provision  for  his  trade,  including  a  ward- 
aumrie  and  several  chests  for  storing  goods. 
There  are  also  three  items  of  more  artistic 
interest.  The  first  of  these  is  a  painted  and 
gilded  image  of  Our  Lady.  The  second  is 
described  as  "  Sanct  James  Staf  with  ane  slap." 
A  slap,  or  slop,  ordinarily  means  a  riddle  or 
sieve,  but  seems  here  to  be  applied  to 
the  reticulated  form  of  wallet  associated  with 
the  staff  which  is  the  emblem  of  St.  James  the 
Greater.  The  patron  saints  of  the  various  gilds 
varied  in  different  towns,  but  St.  James  does 
not  seem  to  have  been  associated  with  any  of 
the  Edinburgh  trades,  St.  John  the  Baptist, 
whose  head  Spottiswood  wore  as  a  pendant, 
being  the  patron  of  the  tailzeours.  There  was, 
however,  an  altar  to  St.  James  in  St.  Giles' 
Cathedral,  and  this  was  under  the  charge  of  the 


THE   RISE   OF  THE  BURGHERS       69 

Provost,  Bailies  and  Council  of  Edinburgh,  and 
the  emblem  may  have  been  carried  by  Spottis- 
wood  in  the  town  processions. 

The  third,  and  most  interesting,  item  is 
"  ane  hingand  brod  of  oley  cullouris."  This 
cannot  have  been  a  signboard,  as  though  trade 
signs  of  various  sorts  were  in  use  even  in  the 
fifteenth  century,  boards  with  signs  painted  on 
them  were  unknown  till  early  in  the  seventeenth. 
"  Brod  "  is  the  word  regularly  used  for  a  pic- 
ture. We  read,  for  instance,  in  the  royal  inven- 
tories, of  the  "  brod  of  the  pictour  of  the  Quene 
Regent  brocht  out  of  France,"  and  of  "  aucht 
paintit  broddis,  Doctouris  of  Almaine  "  (1561). 
The  "  brod  of  oley  cullouris,"  then,  seems  to 
have  been  a  picture,  and  it  is  interesting  as  a  very 
early  instance  of  the  possession  of  an  oil  painting 
in  a  private  house  in  Scotland.  The  portraits 
of  James  III,  still  in  Holyrood,  of  James  IV, 
attributed  to  Holbein,  and  even  that  of  James  V, 
in  the  possession  of  the  Duke  of  Devonshire, 
were  all,  of  course,  painted  before  this  date  ; 
and  there  are  many  early  references  to  painting. 
On  examination,  however,  these  will  be  found 
to  apply  to  something  other  than  pictures  in  oil 
colour.  Thus,  in  1450,  St.  Salvador's  College 
at  St.  Andrew's  had  a  "  new  paynted  clayth  of 
Sant  Lorans,  abwn  St.  Michaellys  alter,"  and 
many  similar  entries  might  be  quoted.  But 
these  were  painted  hangings  intended  as  sub- 


70        DOMESTIC   LIFE   IN   SCOTLAND 

stitutes  for  tapestry,  and  they  were  painted  not 
in  oils  but  with  pigments  soluble  in  water.  Such 
hangings  are  referred  to  in  Shakespeare's 
Henry  IV,  where  he  speaks  of  '  Slaves  as 
ragged  as  Lazarus  in  the  painted  cloth." 
Another  set  of  early  references,  such  as  that  to 
David  Pratt,  who  painted  the  altar  at  Stirling 
in  1497,  and  another  which  speaks  of  "  ane 
ymage  of  St.  Katryn,  new  pantyt  be  the 
Prouest  "  in  1450,  may  also  be  set  aside.  It 
would  be  pleasant  to  conceive  a  Scottish  Provost 
spending  cloistral  hours  in  executing  a  primitif 
portrait  of  St.  Catherine,  but  it  is  likely  that 
his  actual  work  consisted  in  recoating  with 
rather  gaudy  colours  a  carved  figure  of  the 
saint.  But  Spottiswood's  brod  was  a  picture  in 
the  modern  sense,  and  it  is  likely  that  he  may 
have  acquired  it  himself  in  Flanders,  and  may 
thus  have  been  one  of  the  earliest,  if  not 
actually  the  first,  private  patron  of  the  art  of 
painting  in  Scotland.  The  interest  that  the 
early  merchants  had  in  the  fine  arts  may  be 
traced  in  Wedderburn's  Compt  Buik,  where  we 
find  him  noting  that  "  John  Meill  has  promyttit 
a  fyn  gilt  brod  with  a  pictour,  how  sone  he 
passes  to  France,"  and,  on  another  occasion,  that 
"  Thomas  Young  is  awin  me  2  payntit  brodis 
ouergilt  at  his  hame-cuming  from  Flanders." 
The  taste  for  pictorial  art  soon  began  to  diffuse 
itself,  and  in  1585  a  Dutch  painter  called 


THE   RISE   OF  THE  BURGHERS       71 

Adrian  Vanyone  was  made  a  burgess  of  Edin- 
burgh "  to  be  employed  in  his  craft  in  the  town 
and  to  instruct  apprentices." 

Such  a  house  as  we  have  been  examining  is 
interesting  because  it  affords  a  glimpse  of  the 
home  life  of  the  burgher  class  which  was  to 
produce  such  men  as  Robert  Gourlay  and 
George  Heriot.  It  enables  us  to  see  why  it  was 
in  the  homes  of  the  burgesses,  rather  than  in  the 
castles  of  the  nobles,  that  the  way  was  being 
prepared  for  the  great  changes  in  domestic  life 
that  were  to  be  introduced  in  the  reign  of 
James  VI.  The  burgess  lived  in  a  compara- 
tively small  house  with  his  own  family,  and  only 
one  or  two  servants  or  apprentices  to  complete 
the  household.  In  these  conditions  the  tran- 
sition towards  the  modern  conception  of  a  life 
of  domestic  privacy  was  easier  and  more 
natural  than  among  the  nobles,  living  with 
considerable  retinues  in  their  mediaeval  castles, 
and  maintaining  a  certain  state  which  tended  to 
perpetuate  the  feudal  tradition.  Spottiswood's 
house,  consisting  of  only  two  or  three  rooms, 
is  furnished  with  a  sense  of  the  artistic  value 
of  furniture  in  adding  a  beauty  and  dignity  to 
home  life  ;  and  such  a  sense  is  not  often  found 
in  the  castles  of  the  time.  The  silver  spoons 
and  vessels,  the  napery  and  toilet  accessories,  all 
point  to  a  certain  fastidiousness  in  the  details 
of  indoor  life,  and  an  exacting  standard  in 


72        DOMESTIC   LIFE  IN   SCOTLAND 

these  matters  was  more  easily  acquired  in  the 
towns  than  in  the  country.  The  burgesses  too 
were  in  closer  touch  with  the  refinements  intro- 
duced by  foreign  trade,  and  had  opportunities  of 
picking  up  novelties  and  improvements  in  the 
equipment  and  arrangement  of  the  house  which 
were  slower  in  reaching  the  nobles  in  their 
country  homes  ;  while  the  freer  intercourse 
of  town  life  led  to  the  circulation  of  new  ideas 
and  the  rapid  adoption  of  new  fashions. 
Finally,  the  prosperous  tradesman  had  this 
advantage  over  the  nobles,  that  he  had  a  com- 
mand of  money  which  enabled  him  to  indulge 
and  cultivate  his  tastes  and  so,  thanks  to  his 
foreign  connections,  to  become  a  pioneer  in 
introducing  works  of  art  and  other  products  of 
countries  whose  civilisation  was  more  advanced. 
The  mirror  already  spoken  of  is  probably 
an  instance  of  the  additions  to  domestic  con- 
venience introduced  by  the  burgesses.  Mirrors 
are  mentioned  as  having  been  bought  for  the 
King  in  1503,  but  one  of  these  was  "  bocht 
at  the  cremare,"  that  is  from  a  pedlar,  and 
another  picked  up  in  Dumfries  for  eightpence, 
so  that  they  appear  to  have  been  cheap  trifles 
hawked  about  the  country.  They  were  prob- 
ably curious  toys  rather  than  satisfactory  reflec- 
tors. It  is  not  till  1578  that  we  find  mirrors 
mentioned  in  the  royal  inventories,  Queen  Mary 
having  "  ane  fair  steill  glas  "  and  a  small 


THE   RISE   OF  THE  BURGHERS       73 

faceted  mirror  described  as  "  ane  uther  less, 
schawing  monie  faces  in  the  visie."  In  the 
following  century,  when  they  came  into  more 
general  use,  they  were  known  as  "  keiking 
glasses  " — a  name  which  suggests  that  they 
were  still  only  of  small  size  and  perhaps  that 
their  use  was  still  rather  furtive  and  occasional 
than  established  by  custom.  The  old  song  says 

Sweet  Sir,  of  your  courtesie,  "*. 

When  ye  come  by  the  Bass  then, 
For  the  love  ye  bear  to  me 

By  me  a  keiking  glass  then  ! 

The  use  of  clocks  in  the  house  is  also  due  to 
the  middle-class  townsmen,  who  were  the  first 
to  feel  the  need  of  punctuality  in  keeping 
appointments  and  in  regulating  their  business. 
Even  the  alarm  clock  existed  in  Scotland  as 
early  as  1564,  when  the  good  ship  Neptune 
arrived  at  Burntisland,  having  on  board,  among 
other  goods  said  to  have  been  taken  "  in 
piracie,"  "  ane  litill  knok  with  ane  walknar 
(wakener)  ouregilt."  Other  novelties  which 
appeared  about  that  time  were  introduced 
through  the  Court,  whose  relations  with  France 
kept  it  in  touch  with  the  latest  developments 
there.  Fans,  for  instance,  were  used  by  Queen 
Mary,  and  they  are  described  as  "  culing  fannis 
of  litle  wandis,"  while  a  forerunner  of  the 
modern  parasol  may  perhaps  be  found  in  "  ane 
litle  cannabic  of  crammasie  satyne  of  thrie 


quarter  lang,  furnisit  with  freinyes  and  fassis 
(fringes  and  tassels)  made  of  gold  and  cram- 
masie  silk  ;  monie  litle  paintit  buttons  ;  all 
seruing  to  bear  to  mak  schadow  befoir  the 
Queen."  Other  familiar  articles  that  first  came 
into  use  in  the  sixteenth  century  include  shoe- 
horns, then  called  shoeing  horns,  which  are 
mentioned  in  1522  ;  and  glass  vessels  and  cups, 
which,  though  still  a  rarity,  are  referred  to  in 
1526.  Among  certain  small  gear  in  a  great  box 
belonging  to  a  burgess  of  the  "  nobill  burgh  of 
Abirdene  "  we  find  "  spectikyllis  "  named  in 
1546,  but  these  were  probably  in  use  a  hundred 
years  earlier,  as  we  know  them  to  have  been  in 
England. 

An  inventory  of  the  possessions  of  Sir  David 
Lyndsay,  of  the  Mount,  is  preserved  in  the 
Register  of  Acts  and  Decreets,  and  it  has  some 
interesting  features.  Among  his  silver,  for 
instance,  we  find  "  ane  dusoun  of  silver  spunis 
havand  the  armis  of  the  said  umquhile  Schir 
David  thairon,"  perhaps  the  earliest  record  of 
a  private  owner  having  his  silver  so  marked. 
Heraldic  zeal,  however,  need  not  surprise  us  in 
one  who  was  Lyon  King  of  Arms  and  author  of 
the  Register  of  Scottish  Arms.  Even  more 
interesting  is  the  fact  that  he  left  "  ane  byble  in 
Inglis,"  for  Lyndsay,  though  a  reformer  with 
a  singularly  unbridled  tongue,  died  within  the 
communion  of  the  Church.  Many  English 


THE  RISE  OF  THE  BURGHERS       75 

versions  of  the  Bible  had  been  published  before 
Lyndsay's  death  in  1555,  but  it  was  not  till 
twenty-four  years  later  that  the  first  version 
printed  in  Scotland,  by  Bassendyne  and  Arbuth- 
nott,  was  issued.  And  though  the  Edinburgh 
Town  Council  decreed  in  the  following  year 
that  all  "  substantious  houshalderis "  must 
have  a  Bible  in  their  houses,  it  is  not  till  early 
in  the  seventeenth  century  that  we  find  them 
appearing  as  usual  family  possessions. 

That  native  wood-carvers  were  to  be  found  in 
Scotland  even  before  the  close  of  the  fifteenth 
century  is  shown  by  the  accounts  for  the  work 
done  at  Stirling  Castle.  Payments  are  entered 
as  made  "  to  Dauid,  kervour,  in  erlis  for  the 
gallory  quhilk  he  suld  mak  for  x  merkis  "  and 
"  to  the  kervour  that  took  in  task  the  siling  of 
the  chapel."  The  fact  that  the  panelling  or 
"  siling  "  was  entrusted  to  a  carver  seems  to 
show  that  it  was  definitely  artistic  work  and  not 
mere  carpentry.  But  such  work  was  confined 
for  the  most  part  to  ecclesiastical  interiors. 
The  scarcity  of  oak,  apart  from  other  causes, 
made  domestic  panelling  much  less  common 
than  in  England.  "  Syllit  chalmers  "  were  often 
rooms  whose  walls  or  roofs  were  merely  faced 
with  boarding.  Even  as  late  as  1622,  when  the 
standard  of  domestic  decoration  had  advanced 
considerably,  the  Englishman,  John  Ray,  wrote, 


76        DOMESTIC   LIFE   IN   SCOTLAND 

"  In  the  most  stately  and  fashionable  houses, 
in  great  towns,  instead  of  ceiling,  they  cover 
the  chambers  with  firr  boards,  nailed  on  the 
roof  within  side."  And,  indeed,  this  squalid 
fashion  may  be  seen  to  this  day  in  some  of  our 
important  Scottish  Castles. 

In  many  a  church,  however,  there  was  wood- 
carving  of  a  more  or  less  ambitious  kind,  which 
kept  a  certain  technical  standard  before  the  eyes 
of  the  people.  The  screen  and  stalls  of  King's 
College,  Aberdeen,  and  the  stalls  in  Dunblane, 
to  name  two  instances  which  have  survived  the 
iconoclasm  of  the  Reformers,  and  the  elaborate 
gallery  in  Pitsligo  Parish  Church,  erected  in 
1634,  show  that  both  before  and  after  the  Refor- 
mation there  was  no  difficulty  in  providing  Scot- 
tish buildings  with  woodwork  which  was  both 
capably  designed  and  competently  executed. 

The  principal  example  of  a  Scottish  domestic 
ceiling  panelled  in  oak  is  the  gallery  at  Crathes 
Castle.  Of  panelled  walls  there  are  naturally 
more  frequent  examples,  but  early  specimens 
have  often  been  mutilated  as  a  result  of  their 
having  been  moved  from  one  house  to  another, 
and  ruthlessly  cut  to  adapt  them  to  their  new 
situation.  One  fine  piece  of  early  panelling 
latterly  formed  the  partition  of  a  cowhouse  ; 
and  at  Inverugie  Castle  a  carved  and  gilded 
heraldic  panel  was  found  serving  as  part  of  a 
pig-trough  ! 


THE   RISE   OF  THE  BURGHERS       77 

Panels  decorated  with  the  "  linen-fold  "  and 
the  "  parchment  "  patterns,  both  late  Gothic 
types  of  ornament,  are  not  unusual  in  Scotland. 
We  also  find  examples  of  a  type  of  panel  carved 
with  a  floral  design,  a  good  specimen  of  which 
is  the  set  of  panels  from  an  old  house  in 
Montrose,  and  now  the  property  of  Mr.  P.  W. 
Campbell,  W.S.  (Plate  IV).  The  panels  are 
believed  to  be  the  remains  of  a  set  of  twenty- 
two,  and  they  are  supposed  to  be  part  of  the 
fittings  of  Abbot  Panter's  Hospital,  which  was 
built  in  Montrose  in  1516.  The  designing  of 
the  various  subjects  is  well  done  and  shows  a 
certain  resource  in  adapting  the  plant  forms  to 
the  spaces  to  be  filled.  Yet  the  work  has  a 
somewhat  sturdy  and  heavy-handed  quality 
which  suggests  that  they  are  rather  the  work  of 
some  honest  Scot,  discovering  and,  on  the 
whole,  surmounting  the  difficulties  of  design, 
than  of  a  foreign  workman  with  all  the 
experience  of  the  Flemish  gilds  at  his  finger 
ends.  As  to  the  date,  the  carving  might  pass 
for  fifteenth-century  work,  but  the  panels  in 
which  monks  are  satirically  represented  as 
foxes  and  swine  probably  point  to  a  date  nearer 
that  of  the  Reformation.  The  mouldings,  cut 
in  the  solid  wood  of  the  framework,  and  inter- 
secting so  as  to  form  mitres  at  the  upper  corners, 
but  abutting  on  the  rail  at  the  bottom,  support 
the  later  date,  and  suggest  that  the  work  may 


78        DOMESTIC   LIFE  IN   SCOTLAND 

not  be  earlier  than  the  second  quarter  of  the 
sixteenth  century. 

Along  with  these  panels  there  was  found  a 
door  containing  panels  of  similar  design  and 
workmanship,  but  separated  by  stiles  orna- 
mented with  niches  and  representations  of 
traceried  windows.  The  mouldings  are  treated 
in  the  same  way  as  in  the  panelling,  and  it  is 
evident  that  doors  and  panelling  were  originally 
in  the  same  room. 

At  Ethie  Castle  there  is  a  cabinet  associated 
with  the  name  of  Cardinal  Beaton,  who  is  said 
to  have  lived  there  after  succeeding  to  the 
Abbacy  of  Arbroath  ;  the  doors  forming  the 
front  contain  panels  of  very  elaborate  Gothic 
tracery.  This  is  similar  to  the  tracery  found  in 
French  furniture  of  the  end  of  the  fifteenth 
century,  though  the  horizontal  openings  in 
the  upper  panels  of  the  right  hand  door  are 
very  unusual. 

Of  a  totally  different  type  are  some  panels 
which  belong  to  Mrs.  Dunn,  Castledouglas, 
whose  father,  the  late  Mr.  Joseph  Train,  F.S.A. 
(Scot.),  left  a  MS.  note  in  which  he  says  that 
these  panels  were  part  of  a  "  massy  oaken  bed- 
stead well  authenticated  to  have  been  the  prin- 
cipal one  of  the  Castle  of  Threave,  and  said  to 
have  been  that  of  the  Black  Douglas  himself.  It 
is  one  of  the  old  closet  kind  of  bed."  As  the 
figures  wear  costume  of  the  sixteenth  century, 


I'LATE 


0  £ 

Si 


the  association  with  the  Black  Douglas  may  be 
dismissed.  Unfortunately  the  carved  work 
has  been  made  up  into  a  piece  of  furniture  which 
is  altogether  incongruous  with  the  age  to  which 
the  carving  belongs.  These  figures,  however, 
though  of  a  rather  rude  type,  are  extremely 
spirited,  and  they  show  us  performers  on  the 
bagpipes  and  the  fiddle,  as  well  as  archers, 
dancers  and  other  types  of  the  time,  all  repre- 
sented with  a  certain  alertness  of  observation 
and  with  considerable  humour.  The  door  from 
Amisfield  Castle  is  said  to  be  of  the  same  type  of 
work,  but  this  cannot  be  verified  till  the  National 
Museum  of  Antiquities  has  its  exhibits  restored 
to  it.  If  true  it  seems  to  point  to  the  existence 
of  an  untrained  native  artist  in  Dumfries  and 
Galloway  in  the  sixteenth  century,  whose  work 
was  highly  unconventional  and  whose  verve 
and  animal  spirits  we  can  still  appreciate. 

At  Balfour  House,  in  Fife,  there  is  a  set  of 
panels1  which  is  of  greater  artistic  and  historical 
interest  than  any  of  these.  There  are  eight  large 
panels,  extending  across  the  end  of  a  large  room, 
where  they  have  been  placed  above  the  level  of 
the  doors.  They  are  evidently  of  Flemish  work- 
manship of  the  end  of  the  first  quarter  of  the 
sixteenth  century,  and  they  are  excellent  speci- 
mens of  mediaeval  woodcarving  of  a  very  rich 
and  accomplished  kind.  The  first  panel,  on 

1  See  Plates  V  and  VI 


80        DOMESTIC   LIFE  IN  SCOTLAND 

the  left,  shows  the  Annunciation,  the  Virgin 
kneeling  at  a  "  lettron  "  (lutrin),  overwhelmed 
by  the  angel's  message  ;  the  pot  of  lilies,  the 
descending  dove,  and  some  Gothic  scroll  and 
canopy  work  complete  the  decoration  of  the 
panel.  Next  comes  a  panel  whose  subject  is 
the  "  Jesse  tree."  Jesse  is  shown  recumbent 
below,  while  from  him  springs  the  tree  bearing 
his  descendants  and  culminating  in  the  Virgin 
and  Child  at  the  top.  The  third  is  a  sacred 
heraldic  panel,  the  shield  being  charged  with 
the  emblems  of  the  Passion,  while  two  angels 
act  as  supporters  ;  on  the  helm  is  the  crown  of 
thorns ;  the  scourge,  the  crowing  cock  and 
other  emblems  occur  in  the  crest.  After  this 
we  have  a  panel  with  the  arms  of  Cardinal 
Beaton  and  a  pastoral  staff  ;  and  below  are  the 
arms  of  the  Cardinal's  father,  John  Beaton,  and 
his  mother,  Elizabeth  Monipenny,  of  Kinkell, 
the  whole  surrounded  with  a  beautiful  design 
of  pomegranates.  The  fifth  panel  is  carved  with 
the  Scottish  arms,  beneath  which  a  thistle  is 
introduced  between  the  supporters.  The  sixth 
and  seventh  have  decorative  designs  of  various 
plant  forms,  among  which  the  rose  and  the 
thistle  are  employed  ;  while  the  eighth  panel 
is  ornamented  with  an  arrangement  of  carved 
bosses  with  heraldic  and  other  motives. 

The  wood  carving,  as  well  as  the  designing, 
is  of  a  high  standard,  such  as  was  secured  by 


j  « 
a  « 

2  ,« 


THE   RISE   OF  THE  BURGHERS       81 

the  strict  control  exercised  by  the  Flemish  gilds 
over  the  work  turned  out  by  their  members. 
The  work,  has  of  course,  been  executed  in 
accordance  with  specifications  supplied  by 
Beatoun,  and  the  heraldic  details  and  the 
Scottish  emblems  employed  in  the  decoration 
give  it  a  personal  and  national  character. 

The  use  of  the  pastoral  staff  in  the  fourth 
panel  shows  that  the  panels  were  executed 
before  1537,  when,  as  Bishop  of  Mirepoix, 
Beatoun  became  entitled  to  display  the  crozier 
instead  of  the  humbler  emblem.  As  Abbot  of 
Arbroath  he  had  the  right  to  the  pastoral  staff 
from  1524,  and  it  is  probable  that  the  work 
was  commissioned  by  him  shortly  after  his 
appointment.  The  tradition  in  the  family  was 
that  the  panels  had  been  "  in  the  form  of  a 
canopy,"  and  that  they  had  formed  part  of  the 
Cardinal's  stall  at  Rome,  tkough  it  was  evident 
to  the  later  descendants  that  the  connection 
with  Rome  could  not  be  seriously  maintained. 
There  can  be  little  doubt  that  they  were  part  of 
the  decoration  of  a  series  of  stalls  in  Arbroath 
Abbey,  and  were  originally  surmounted  in  the 
usual  way  with  overhanging  canopies.  The 
bosses  on  the  eighth  panel,  which  is  not  one  of 
the  original  set,  have  probably  been  taken  from 
the  carved  canopies  which  formerly  topped  the 
stalls.  It  is  worth  noting  that  there  are  seven 
of  these  bosses,  corresponding  to  the  number  of 
6 


82        DOMESTIC   LIFE   IN  SCOTLAND 

the  other  panels,  and  the  larger  size  of  the 
central  boss  may  imply  that  the  panel  bearing 
the  Scottish  arms  occupied  the  central  position 
in  the  original  arrangement.  The  present 
arrangement  is  that  which  was  made  about 
1670,  when  the  panels  were  removed  from 
their  canopied  setting  and  disposed  on  the  wall 
so  that  the  more  interesting  panels  are  next  the 
light.  Even  as  we  see  them  to-day  they  are 
a  most  interesting  survival  of  the  "  excellent 
work  "  which  beautified  the  sacred  buildings 
of  Scotland,  and  of  which  so  little  survived  the 
latter  half  of  the  sixteenth  century,  when  they 
"  broke  down  the  carved  work  thereof  at  once 
with  axes  and  hammers." 

The  art  of  ornamental  needlework,  or  em- 
broidery, is  of  very  early  origin,  and  it  was  no 
doubt  in  use  in  Scotland,  though  in  compara- 
tively rude  forms,  long  before  we  have  any 
record  of  it.  By  the  fifteenth  century  it  was  a 
well-matured  art,  employed  in  decorating  cos- 
tume, curtains  and  draperies  of  all  sorts.  An 
embroiderer,  called  a  browdstar,  brusoure  or 
brodinster,  was  one  of  the  regular  servants  of 
the  royal  retinue,1" and  many  noble  families  also 
had  their  own  embroiderers.  The  royal  browd- 
star's  duties  included  keeping  the  chapel  vest- 
ments in  order,  making  good  the  wear  and  tear 
of  the  tapestry  hangings,  and  doing  such  odd 


PLATE 


THE   RISE   OF  THE  BURGHERS       83 

jobs  as  "  making  a  chamlot  bag  to  the  King," 
for  which  "  Gely  brousoure  "  was  paid  six 
shillings  by  the  Lord  High  Treasurer  in  1474. 
His  services  were  valued  at  twenty  pounds  for 
three  terms,  and  he  was  supplied  besides  with 
the  necessary  materials  for  his  work.  In  the 
inventory  made  in  1488  of  the  effects  of  King 
James  III,  particulars  are  given  of  the  drapery 
of  a  bed,  consisting  of  covering,  roof  and  pen- 
dicles,  or  curtains,  all  made  of  "  variand  purpur 
tartar,  browdin  with  thrissillis  and  a  unicorne  " 
which  by  the  way  is  perhaps  the  earliest  refer- 
ence to  the  thistle  as  the  Scottish  national  badge 
or  emblem.  Such  work  as  this  no  doubt  fell  to 
the  royal  embroiderer,  with  occasional  trained 
assistance  for  special  work  ;  and  the  enrichment 
of  such  bed-hangings,  cloths  of  estate,  and  the 
royal  robes  and  chapel  vestments  must  have 
called  for  a  high  standard  of  workmanship  as 
well  as  for  untiring  industry. 

It  was  in  ecclesiastical  ornament,  however, 
that  needlework  found  its  most  elaborate  de- 
velopment, and  it  was  probably  in  it  that 
'  ymagerie,"  or  pictorial  representation,  was 
first  employed.  In  1450  the  High  Altar  at  St. 
Salvador's  College,  St.  Andrews,  had  a  "  blew 
claith  wellowis  (velvet)  browdyn  with  ymagis 
abuff  the  altar,"  and  a  similar  cloth  under  the 
altar  (a  nether  frontal),  ';<  brusyt  with  thre 
ymages  of  gold  "  ;  while  among  other  "  clay- 


84        DOMESTIC   LIFE   IN   SCOTLAND 

this  for  the  kyrk  "  there  was  "  ane  frontale 
of  clayth  of  gold  contenand  the  xii  Appostilis." 
When,  in  the  sixteenth  century,  it  became 
usual  to  panel  the  principal  rooms  in  important 
houses,  and  tapestry  passed  into  temporary 
eclipse,  the  change  soon  led  to  a  new  develop- 
ment of  the  embroiderer's  art.  The  occupants 
of  such  rooms,  we  may  conjecture,  began  to  find 
that,  with  all  the  practical  advantages  of  panel- 
ling, rooms  so  treated  were  somewhat  dull  and 
cheerless  to  live  in.  Tapestrie  chambers  had 
not  only  been  rich  in  colour,  but  they  had 
appealed  to  the  imagination  of  those  who  lived 
in  them  by  the  romantic  suggestion  of  the 
stories  that  they  pictured.  All  this  was  gone, 
and  people  looked  back  to  the  brightness  and 
poetry  of  the  fashion  that  had  been  displaced. 
No  doubt  when  the  Reformation  led  to  the 
churches  being  despoiled  of  their  richly  em- 
broidered cloths  and  vestments,  many  of  these 
found  their  way  into  private  houses  and  were 
used  to  relieve  the  sombre  austerity  of  panelled 
rooms.  The  same  movement,  however,  had 
deprived  the  professional  embroiderers  of  the 
principal  outlet  for  their  most  important  work. 
And  it  is  hardly  fanciful  to  suppose  that  these 
conditions  explain  the  introduction  of  pictures 
stitched  in  coloured  wools  and  silks,  and  repre- 
senting biblical  and  romantic  stories,  which 
came  into  fashion  towards  the  end  of  the  six- 


THE   RISE   OF  THE   BURGHERS       85 

teenth  century.  These  pictures  are  generally 
small  in  scale,  being  often  worked  on  horizontal 
lengths  of  canvas  measuring  about  22j  inches 
in  height.  The  length  of  the  various  pieces 
composing  a  set  often  varies  considerably,  and 
this  suggests  that  they  were  hung  in  sequence,  as 
a  sort  of  running  frieze,  at  a  suitable  level  on  the 
wall,  and  that  the  length  of  the  separate  pieces 
may  have  been  determined  by  the  width,  of  the 
wall-spaces  they  were  intended  to  occupy. 
The  work  is  done  in  petit  point,  consisting  of 
small  diagonal  stitches  corresponding  to  the 
mesh  of  the  canvas  on  which  they  are  sewn.  In 
most  cases  there  are  about  seventeen  or  eighteen 
stitches  to  the  vertical  linear  inch,  and  rather 
fewer,  say  fourteen  to  seventeen,  to  the  hori- 
zontal inch.  An  interesting  fact  has  been  noted 
by  Mr.  C.  E.  C.  Tatersall,  that  where  two 
members  of  the  design  are  intended  to  be  of  the 
same  size,  they  correspond  in  actual  size  rather 
than  in  the  number  of  stitches  ;  from  which  it 
would  seem  that  the  design  has  been  drawn  on 
the  canvas,  not  copied  by  a  count  from  squared 
paper,  as  is  done  to-day. 

It  was  probably  by  women,  who  spent  so 
much  of  their  time  indoors,  that  the  want  of 
such  pictures  was  most  felt,  and  much  of  the 
work  itself  was  well  fitted  to  appeal  to  the  taste 
and  domestic  industry  of  women,  even  if  they 
had  not  the  trained  capacity  of  the  professional 


86        DOMESTIC   LIFE   IN   SCOTLAND 

embroiderers.  Catherine  de  Medici  in  France, 
Queen  Elizabeth  in  England  and  Queen  Mary 
in  Scotland  were  all  accomplished  workers  at 
embroidery.  Whether  any  one  of  them  was 
capable  of  producing  petit  point  panels  of 
romantic  figure-subjects  with  backgrounds  rich 
with  ornamental  gardens,  architecture  and  every 
kind  of  animal  life,  is  questionable.  Certainly 
from  the  point  of  view  of  design,  these  panels 
were  beyond  the  capacity  of  even  talented 
amateurs.  But  Catherine  de  Medici,  who,  as 
Brantome  tells  us,  used  to  work  at  her  silk 
embroidery  after  dinner,  had  her  work  designed, 
and  probably  supervised,  by  Frederic  de  Vin- 
ciolo,  who  is  described  as  "  dessinateur  des  plus 
renomme's  pour  broderie"  As  for  Queen  Mary, 
a  letter  (July,  1557)  from  Sir  Nicholas  Throk- 
morton  to  Queen  Elizabeth,  whose  emissary  he 
was,  describes  a  visit  to  the  Queen  of  Scots 
shortly  after  her  imprisonment  in  Loch  Leven, 
and  mentions  that  she  had  applied  for  "  an 
imbroderer  to  drawe  furthe  such  works  as  she 
would  be  occupied  about."  Whether  this 
request  was  granted  does  not  seem  to  be  re- 
corded. The  request  shows  her  dependence  on 
a  professional  designer.  We  learn  from  a 
French  source,  however,  that  among  the  ser- 
vants who  were  taken  from  her  by  Sir  Amyas 
Poulet  in  1587  was  "  son  brodeur,  Charles 
Plouvart."  And  looking  for  confirmation  of 


THE   RISE   OF  THE  BURGHERS       87 

this  to  the  list  preserved  in  the  State  Papers 
concerning  Queen  Mary  (No.  378)  of  the  ser- 
vants to  whom  passports  were  issued  on  their 
repatriation,  we  find  the  name  of  Charles 
"  Plonart,"  probably  a  mistake  for  Plouart,  the 
nature  of  whose  service  however  is  not  there 
specified. 

So  deeply  has  the  popular  imagination  been 
impressed  by  the  romantic  story  of  Queen 
Mary  spending  the  bitter  hours  of  imprison- 
ment at  her  embroidery,  that  there  is  a  tendency 
to  attribute  to  her,  or  at  least  to  associate  with 
her,  any  piece  of  early  embroidery  that  has  come 
down  through  several  generations  of  a  Scottish 
family.  One  piece  of  work  which  has  been 
exhibited  more  than  once  as  belonging  to,  if 
not  worked  by  her,  is  plainly  of  the  time  of 
Charles  I  ;  and  even  much  later  pieces  than 
this  have  been  attributed  to  her.  All  such 
attributions  should  be  suspected,  and  the  in- 
trinsic and  documentary  evidence  carefully 
examined. 

One  specimen  of  her  work  whose  authenticity 
can  hardly  be  doubted  is  preserved  at  Hardwick 
Hall  (Plate  VII).  The  spaces  formed  by  the 
interlacing  design  are  filled  with  the  Lily  of 
France,  the  Thistle  of  Scotland  and  the  Rose  of 
England,  while  on  the  round  panel  in  the  centre 
the  letters  of  the  name  Maria  have  been  worked 
into  a  monogram  and  are  surmounted  with  a 


88        DOMESTIC   LIFE  IN  SCOTLAND 

crown.  While  the  design  is  a  simple  one  and 
hardly  beyond  the  power  of  an  amateur 
designer,  there  are  one  or  two  features — such 
as  the  little  spiral  which  occurs  between  the 
reticulations — which  may  point  to  a  more 
experienced  hand,  possibly  that  of  Plouvart. 
Another  panel  in  the  possession  of  the  Duke  of 
Devonshire  which  is  attributed  to  Queen  Mary 
bears  in  the  centre  a  scutcheon  with  the  arms 
of  Lady  Shrewsbury,  the  well-known  Bess  of 
Hardwick,  in  the  custody  of  whose  fourth 
husband  Mary  was  placed.  Round  the  scut- 
cheon, whose  length  seems  to  have  been  added 
to  as  if  by  an  afterthought,  there  is  a  well-dis- 
tributed verdure  pattern,  the  leaves  and  flowers 
being  comfortably  adapted  to  the  broken  out- 
line of  the  cartouche  in  which  the  scutcheon 
stands. 

From  embroidered  work  of  this  kind  it  is  a 
far  cry  to  the  petit  point  hangings  in  which 
all  the  significant  episodes  of  some  romantic 
story  are  set  forth,  the  figures  wearing  con- 
temporary costume  and  decked  with  jewels  and 
sumptuous  patterned  fabrics,  and  the  whole 
drama  set  in  a  background  in  which  every 
curiosity  of  nature  and  art  is  employed  to 
enrich  the  effect  of  the  whole.  Such  work  must 
have  taxed  the  skill  of  the  most  expert  profes- 
sional embroiderers.  Consider  the  difficulty, 
for  instance,  of  interpreting  with  the  needle  an 


PLATE    Vll 


THE   RISE   OF  THE  BURGHERS       89 

intricately  brocaded  silk  or  velvet  draped  in 
folds  on  a  figure  in  action,  where  the  pattern  is 
constantly  broken  and  distorted  by  the  folds  of 
the  drapery,  and  the  colours  of  the  materials 
have  to  be  perpetually  modified  to  express  the 
light  and  shade  of  the  puckered  fabric.  Work 
so  complicated  must  have  demanded  not  only  a 
highly  cultivated  sense  of  drawing,  but  also  an 
undivided  and  concentrated  attention  in  carry- 
ing out  the  design,  which  could  hardly  have 
been  expected  of  Queen  Mary,  with  so  many 
sad  and  anxious  thoughts  to  muse  over  as  she 
plied  her  needle. 

Two  petit  point  panels  which  were  acquired 
by  Sir  Noel  Paton  at  the  Murthly  Castle  sale 
are  now  in  the  Royal  Scottish  Museum.  They 
are  said  to  represent  (a)  Solomon  and  the  Queen 
of  Shebay  and  (b)  Queen  Elizabeth  receiving  an 
Embassy  with  a  Proposal  of  Marriage  from 
Philip  II  of  Spain  (1559)  ;  the  two  panels  are 
of  the  same  height,  and  though  one  is  some 
eight  inches  longer  than  the  other  the  composi- 
tion is  so  similar  that  they  appear  to  be  intended 
as  a  pair,  in  which  case  the  subjects  are  rather 
oddly  assorted,  and  the  smaller  panel  perhaps 
represents  some  sixteenth-century  historical 
subject. 

The  panels  mounted  on  a  screen  and  repre- 
senting the  Story  of  Rehoboam  have  been 
exhibited  on  several  occasions  since  they  came 


90        DOMESTIC  LIFE  IN  SCOTLAND 

into  the  possession  of  Mr.  Scott  MoncriefFs 
family.  These  hangings  were  very  naturally 
identified  with  the  set,  illustrating  the  same  un- 
usual subject,  which  appears  in  the  inventory 
made  in  1561  of  effects  belonging  to  Mary  of 
Guise,  and  also  in  the  list  of  goods  handed  over 
to  James  VI  in  1578.  Investigation,  however, 
showed  that  a  Rehoboam  set  was  recorded  in 
the  earlier  inventories  of  1539  and  1542,  and 
Mr.  Scott  Moncrieff  at  once  recognised  the 
probability  that  Mary  of  Guise's  set  was  the 
same  as  that  mentioned  in  the  earlier  documents, 
as  existing  at  a  date  clearly  too  early  for  the 
costume  in  his  own  set.  He  also  made  a  de- 
tailed inquiry  into  the  costume  in  his  set, 
and  reached  the  conclusion  that  it  was  probably 
of  a  date  later,  though  not  much  later,  than  1561. 
There  is  another  point.  The  Rehoboam  hangings 
in  the  royal  inventories  are  grouped  with  many 
others  as  "  Tapestryis,"  a  term  properly  applied 
to  woven  hangings  ;  and  it  appears  very  un- 
likely that,  especially  in  the  Scottish  Court, 
whose  vocabulary  in  such  matters  closely  fol- 
lowed the  French  usage,  small  embroideries 
sewn  with  the  needle  would  be  so  described. 
No  doubt  the  word  tapestry  was  used  with  a 
certain  latitude,  for  we  read  of  "  ellevin  tapes- 
trie  of  gilt  ledder  "  ;  but  where  woven  tapestry 
was  not  intended,  I  think  the  distinction  would 
be  clearly  expressed.  That  the  tapestries  in  the 


THE  RISE  OF  THE  BURGHERS       91 

royal  inventories  were  hangings  of  considerable 
size  is  further  shown  by  the  fact  that  many  of 
them  were  eventually  made  down  into  bed- 
covers and  bed-curtains,  as  appears  in  the  list  of 
beds  handed  over  to  James  VI  as  "  pertening  to 
his  hienes*  derrest  moder." 

But  though  it  would  have  added  a  historical 
interest  if  these  hangings  could  have  been 
identified  with  the  tapestries  which  belonged 
to  Mary  of  Guise,  still  their  beauty  and  interest 
are  inherent  and  do  not  depend  on  documentary 
evidence.  They  are  undoubtedly  of  the  period 
of  Queen  Mary.  They  came  into  the  present 
owner's  family  in  1692,  having  previously 
belonged  to  another  Scottish  family,  so  that 
their  early  association  with  Scotland  is  un- 
doubted, and  is  confirmed  by  the  use  of  the 
thistle  as  a  piece  of  decoration  in  the  uppermost 
panel.  The  number  of  Scottish  houses  in  the 
sixteenth  century  likely  to  have  such  finely 
wrought  embroideries  was  limited,  and  when 
we  reflect  that  the  story  of  Rehoboam  is  one 
that  deals  with  a  royal  house  in  its  relations  to 
changes  in  the  national  faith,  it  is  by  no  means 
improbable  that  the  hangings  may  have  had 
some  connection  with  Queen  Mary,  whom  such 
questions  of  royal  policy  so  closely  affected. 

Another  set  of  petit  point  hangings  tradi- 
tionally attributed  to  Queen  Mary  is  that  be- 
longing to  the  Earl  of  Morton  ;  and  its  un- 


92        DOMESTIC   LIFE  IN   SCOTLAND 

interrupted  ownership,  from  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury to  the  present  day,  by  Regent  Morton  and 
his  descendants  might  well  seem  to  support  the 
tradition.  But,  in  the  first  place,  it  is  impossible 
that  work  of  such  rare  beauty  and  such  intricate 
richness  could  have  been  produced  by  Mary  and 
her  ladies,  and  above  all  at  Loch  Leven  where 
there  was  no  artist  to  execute  the  design.  Mary 
was  only  eleven  months  in  Loch  Leven.  By 
June,  1568,  she  had  left  Scotland.  Though  it 
is  extremely  difficult  to  deduce  an  exact  time 
from  costume,  still  the  costumes  in  these  hang- 
ings appear  to  be  later,  rather  than  earlier,  than 
1568  ;  and  if  this  is  so  they  are  hardly  likely, 
supposing  them  to  have  been  worked  by  Queen 
Mary,  to  have  come  to  Scotland  and  into  the 
hands  of  Regent  Morton.  (Plate  VIII). 

But  there  is  one  line  of  investigation  which 
might  lead  to  interesting  results.  While  most 
of  the  petit  point  hangings  of  the  period  have 
a  strong  resemblance  to  each  other  in  their 
general  character,  one  finds  on  comparison  that 
the  various  examples  differ  from  each  other 
just  as  sharply  as  do,  for  instance,  the  drawings 
by  different  artists  in  Punch.  After  careful 
examination  of  a  large  number  of  such  needle- 
work hangings  I  have  found  none  comparable  in 
draughtsmanship,  in  the  expressive  grace  and 
romantic  dignity  of  the  figures,  and  in  the 
resourceful  inventiveness  of  the  garden  back- 


t'LATE   I  Iff 


THE   RISE   OF  THE  BURGHERS       93 

ground,  with  Lord  Morton's  set.  So  remark- 
able are  these  qualities  that  one  asks  who  there 
was  among  contemporary  artists  who  could 
have  produced  such  work  ?  And  one  remem- 
bers the  name  of  Nicholas  Hilliard,  goldsmith 
and  portrait  painter  to  Queen  Elizabeth,  of 
whom  Donne  wrote  : 

A  hand  or  eye 

By  Hilliard  drawn  is  worth  a  historye 
By  a  worse  painter  made. 

I  do  not  know  that  there  is  any  evidence  that 
Hilliard  designed  for  embroidery,  but  it  is  quite 
likely  that  the  members  of  the  Broderers' 
Company,  incorporated  by  Queen  Elizabeth  in 
1561,  may  have  applied  to  the  leading  artists  of 
the  time  to  supply  designs  for  the  petit  point 
panels  that  just  then  came  into  fashion.  Hilliard 
has  left  a  considerable  number  of  miniatures,  and 
there  is  a  couple  of  drawings  by  him  at  the 
British  Museum,  one  of  which  is  the  design  for 
the  Great  Seal  of  Ireland  ;  but  there  is  nothing 
in  these  to  justify  one  in  attributing  the  design 
of  the  Morton  hangings  to  him.  One  of  the  best 
known  of  the  miniatures  is  that  representing 
George  Clifford,  Earl  of  Cumberland,  as  Queen's 
Champion  ;  and  in  this  the  Champion's  scut- 
cheon bears  a  device  consisting  of  a  globe, 
representing  the  earth,  between  a  sun  "  in  his 
splendour  " — that  is  surrounded  with  rays — in 
the  upper  part  of  the  field,  and  a  moon  and  stars 


94        DOMESTIC   LIFE   IN   SCOTLAND 

in  the  lower  part.  This  may  be  some  flattering 
allusion  to  Elizabeth,  and  it  is  worth  noting  that 
the  seated  figure,  which  might  well  be  a  portrait 
of  Queen  Elizabeth,  in  the  central  panel  of 
Lord  Morton's  hangings,  wears  shoulder  pieces 
showing  the  device  of  a  sun  in  his  splendour. 
In  connection  with  this  figure  and  its  garden 
surroundings  we  may  recall  Hilliard's  descrip- 
tion of  how,  when  he  "  first  came  in  her 
Highnes  presence  to  drawe,"  the  Queen,  in 
order  to  avoid  all  shadows  on  the  face  "  chosse 
her  place  to  sit  in  ...  the  open  ally  of  a 
goodly  garden,  where  no  tree  was  neere,  nor 
anye  shadowe  at  all."  If  these  hangings  should 
represent  a  series  of  scenes  in  some  masque 
written  in  honour  of  Elizabeth  and  perhaps 
acted  at  court,  it  might  well  have  been  depicted 
by  Hilliard  as  painter  to  the  Queen.  There 
are  passages  in  his  Arte  of  Limning  in  which 
Hilliard  makes  it  plain  that  designing  of  this 
kind  was  known  to  him,  though  he  does  not 
explicitly  say  that  he  practised  it.  He  naturally, 
as  a  miniature  painter,  claims  a  higher  place  for 
that  art "  as  a  thing  apart  from  all  other  painting 
or  drawing,  and  tendeth  not  to  comon  mens 
vsse,  either  for  furnishing  of  howsses  or  any 
patternes  for  tapistries  "  ;  and  elsewhere  he 
speaks  of  portraiture  as  a  thing  "  which  indeed 
one  should  not  atempt  vntill  he  weare  metly 
good  in  story  work."  It  is  a  fair  inference  that 


THE   RISE   OF  THE  BURGHERS       95 

he  had  some  experience  in  designing  such  story 
work  as  is  exemplified  in  these  hangings. 

Hilliard  devoted  much  attention  to  the  render- 
ing of  jewellery,  and  in  this  respect  and  in  all  the 
opulent  detail  with  which  every  inch  of  the 
hangings  is  covered,  the  design  might  very  well 
be  that  of  a  goldsmith.  But  besides  such 
general  considerations  there  are  historical  facts 
which  seem  to  support  the  hypothesis  of  his 
connection  with  this  piece  of  needlework,  or 
which  at  least  make  such  a  connection  plausible. 
In  the  course  of  a  search  into  the  beginnings  of 
industrial  enterprise  in  Scotland  I  chanced  on 
this  curious  and  interesting  fact,  which  seems  to 
have  escaped  the  notice  of  Hilliard's  biographers. 
In  the  year  1580  a  company  of  adventurers  came 
to  Scotland  with  the  object  of  working  gold 
mines  in  Crawfurd  Muir,  Lanarkshire,  where 
alluvial  gold  had  been  found  by  earlier  enthu- 
siasts. The  head  of  this  company  was  Nicholas 
Hilliard,  who  had  with  him  Arnold  Bronkhorst, 
a  Flemish  painter,  as  his  assistant.  It  was  to 
Regent  Morton  that  application  had  to  be  made 
for  a  patent  to  work  the  mines,  and  it  seems 
probable  that  the  applicants  would  come  bearing 
gifts  for  those  whose  favour  had  to  be  won. 
What  more  likely  than  that  Hilliard  should  bring 
a  set  of  these  hangings,  which  were  the  latest 
fashion  in  the  great  English  houses,  and  which 
were  easily  packed  up  and  carried  ? 


96        DOMESTIC   LIFE  IN  SCOTLAND 

Regent  Morton  refused  to  grant  the  conces- 
sion, although  we  are  told  that  "  the  said 
Bronkhorst  became  a  suitor  at  least  for  the 
space  of  four  moneths  and  did  not  prevail  unto 
this  day."  Hilliard  had  meanwhile  returned  to 
England  having  "  lost  all  his  chardges  and  never 
since  got  any  recompence,  to  Mr.  Hilliard's 
great  hinderance,  as  he  saith,  who  yet  liveth, 
and  confirmeth  the  same."  So  Steven  Atkinson 
tells  us  in  his  Discoverie  and  Historie  of  the  Gold 
Mynes  in  Scotland,  published  in  1619,  the  year 
of  Hilliard's  death.  Bronkhorst,  he  says,  "  was 
forced  to  become  one  of  his  Majestie's  sworne 
servants  at  Ordinary  in  Scotland,  to  draw  all  the 
small  and  great  pictures  for  his  Majesty  "  ;  and 
an  original  precept  at  the  Register  House,  signed 
by  James  VI,  records  payment  to  him  for  two 
portraits  of  the  King  and  one  of  George 
Buchanan,  with  an  additional  one  hundred 
marks  "  as  an  gratitude  for  his  repairing  to  this 
countrey." 

This  story  of  the  gold-mining  adventurers  at 
least  suggests, as  an  alternative  to  the  Loch  Leven 
origin  of  the  hangings,  which  is  improbable  on 
account  of  dates,  how  this  romantic  piece  of 
needlework  may  have  come  into  the  possession 
of  the  family  of  Lord  Morton.  Whether  it  was 
designed  by  Hilliard  himself  cannot  meanwhile 
be  proved.  The  evidence  of  the  miniatures 
does  not  support  the  ascription,  though  it  is 


THE   RISE   OF  THE  BURGHERS       97 

difficult  to  argue  from  portrait  miniatures, 
where  the  artist  is  closely  tied  to  the  realities  of 
his  sitters,  to  storied  design,  where  he  is  free  to 
indulge  his  personal  conceptions  of  ideal  beauty. 
One  clue  that  might  lead  to  an  identification  of 
the  designer  is  the  treatment  of  the  hands,  which 
is  very  distinctive.  The  fingers  are  shown  as 
curved  and  separated,  each  with  its  own  action, 
and  the  forefinger  having  more  upward  spring 
from  the  knuckle  than  the  others.  There  is  a 
set  of  three  small  panels  at  the  Victoria  and 
Albert  Museum  where  there  is  a  somewhat 
similar  treatment  of  the  hands,  and  some  of  the 
men's  heads  are  not  unlike  those  in  Lord 
Morton's  panels.  But  the  museum  set  lacks 
the  elegance  of  drawing  and  the  expressive 
beauty  of  the  figures  in  the  set  we  have  been 
examining. 


LECTURE  IV 

THE  DECAY  OF  FEUDALISM  AND  THE 
DEVELOPMENT  OF   FAMILY  LIFE 

JAMES   VI,    1578-1625 

New  conceptions  of  domestic  life — Historical  origins  of 
the  change — Passing  away  of  feudalism — Expansion  of 
trade  and  increasing  importance  of  the  towns — Enrichment 
of  the  nobles  by  partition  of  Church  property — An  era  of 
building — Domestic  character  of  the  new  architecture — 
Feudal  lords  transformed  into  courtiers,  with  luxurious 
standards  of  living — Changes  in  domestic  arrangements — 
The  hall  gives  place  to  the  dining-room — The  "  Dravand 
Buird  " — Table  manners  at  Court  and  in  private  life — 
Table  ware,  etc. — Display  of  plate — Cupboards  with 
"  gries  " — The  dresser — Dessert  and  the  banquet — The 
parlour — Stuffed  chairs — The  taffel — Books  ;  the  Family 
Bible — Pictures — Music — Life  of  the  leisured  classes — 
Men's  employments  and  recreations — How  a  lady  of 
fashion  spent  her  day — Dietetic  dangers  and  some  medical 
counsels — Children's  toys — A  boy's  penknife — Duncan's 
new  doublet. 

AL  through  the  sixteenth  century,  house 
furnishing    in    Scotland   proceeded   on 
the  basis  of  a  mediaeval  conception  of 
social  life.    As,  with  more  settled  conditions, 
the  country  advanced  in  prosperity,  and  as  the 
middle  classes  gradually  gained  in  influence  and 
importance,  the  diffusion  of  wealth  began  to  be 
reflected  in  the  increase  of  luxury  in  the  homes 
of  gentle  and  simple.    Carved  and  gilded  wood, 

98 


THE  DECAY  OF  FEUDALISM          99 

rich  fabrics  and  jewellery  and  ornaments  of 
every  kind  gave  the  interiors  of  many  Scottish 
homes  an  interest  which  they  had  not  had  in 
ruder  and  less  sophisticated  days.  Yet,  if  there 
was  more  conscious  art,  the  furniture  was  of  the 
same  types  and  served  the  same  social  usages  as 
in  the  fifteenth  century.  Such  advance  as  there 
was  amounted  rather  to  a  general  enrichment  of 
the  details  of  domestic  furnishing  than  to  any 
radical  change  in  its  principles. 

But  almost  with  the  stroke  of  the  new  century 
there  came  a  change.  As  we  read  the  inventories 
of  household  plenishings  of  the  closing  years 
of  the  sixteenth  century  and  the  opening  years 
of  the  seventeenth,  we  cannot  but  recognise 
that  a  great  upheaval  in  the  arrangements  of 
household  life  was  taking  place  and  that  innova- 
tions were  being  introduced  that  really  implied 
a  new  conception  of  social  order.  In  these 
inventories  we  constantly  find  new  articles  of 
furniture,  meeting  wants  which  were  unknown 
to  the  previous  generation.  The  interiors 
assume  a  more  comfortable,  and,  to  our  modern 
eyes,  a  more  familiar  air  than  that  of  the  some- 
what severe  and  ceremonial  apartments  of  the 
fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries.  Feudalism 
has  run  its  course,  and  we  are  watching  the 
beginnings  of  the  modern  world  with  its  distinc- 
tive conception  of  comfort  and  privacy  in  family 
life. 


100      DOMESTIC   LIFE   IN  SCOTLAND 

So  sudden  and  so  striking  is  the  change  that 
the  least  reflective  must  turn  to  history  for  an 
explanation  ;  and,  indeed,  it  is  easy  to  recognise 
some  of  the  influences  which  combined  to  pre- 
cipitate a  crisis  which  was  already  overdue. 

There  was  in  the  first  place  the  modern  spirit, 
born  of  the  Renaissance — a  spirit  which  could 
not  coexist  with  the  feudalism  of  the  Middle 
Ages,  and  which  was  bound  to  overturn,  sooner 
or  later,  any  system  based  on  such  a  conception. 
The  new  independence  of  thought  which  char- 
acterised the  time  must  in  itself  have  led  to  a 
reconsideration  of  the  social  relations  on  which 
mediaeval  household  life  depended.  It  was 
stimulated  by  the  freer  intellectual  contact  with 
the  countries  of  Europe  both  through  foreign 
travel  and  as  a  result  of  the  interchange  of 
printed  literature.  But  apart  from  such  general 
causes,  the  Reformation,  which  was  the  crisis 
through  which  Scotland  chiefly  felt  and  re- 
sponded to  the  Renaissance  movement,  had 
specific  results  which  exercised  a  very  marked 
and  definite  influence  on  social  conditions  in 
Scotland.  The  long  drain  of  Scottish  money 
towards  Rome  was  now  at  an  end,  and  the 
accumulation  of  capital  in  the  country  was  at 
last  possible.  At  the  same  moment  traders  all 
over  the  country  were  relieved  from  the  com- 
petition of  the  Church,  whose  immense  re- 
sources in  wealth  and  organisation  had  enabled 


THE  DECAY  OF  FEUDALISM        101 

her  to  overshadow  the  business  enterprises  of 
her  humbler  rivals.  Trade  and  industry,  thus 
relieved  from  the  burdens  that  had  so  long  over- 
weighted them,  began  to  expand  and  find  their 
natural  development.  Tradesmen  and  crafts- 
men who  had  hitherto  found  shelter  under  the 
wing  of  the  Castle  or  of  the  Abbey,  and  had 
lived  at  the  beck  and  call  of  their  feudal 
superiors,  migrated  into  the  towns  and  carried 
on  their  work  under  the  protection  of  the  town 
gilds.  Thus,  while  the  Castles  lost  their  im- 
portance, the  towns  were  every  day  gaining  in 
population  and  in  activity.  It  only  wanted  the 
circulation  of  considerable  sums  of  money  to 
ensure  that  the  advance  in  prosperity  should  be 
confirmed  and  developed  ;  and  this  too  came 
about  as  an  indirect  consequence  of  the  Reforma- 
tion. In  1587  an  Act  of  Parliament  was  passed 
which,  subject  to  provision  for  the  clergy, 
transferred  all  ecclesiastical  property  to  the 
King— -the  measure  being  justified  by  the 
allegation  that  the  Crown  had,  before  the 
Reformation,  been  driven  to  overtax  the  people 
in  order  to  make  good  its  own  gifts  to  the 
Church.  However  this  may  be,  it  is  estimated 
that  from  a  third  to  a  half  of  the  total  wealth  of 
the  country  had  passed  into  the  possession  of 
the  Church.  From  the  property  which  was 
now  transferred  to  the  Crown,  James  made 
lavish  gifts  to  the  nobles,  many  of  whom,  finding 


102      DOMESTIC  LIFE  IN  SCOTLAND 

themselves  suddenly  possessed  of  lands  and  a 
sufficient  income,  seized  the  opportunity  of  re- 
modelling their  castles  or  of  building  new  homes 
of  a  less  antiquated  character.  As  artillery,  by 
this  time,  could  make  short  work  of  the  strongest 
masonry,  there  was  no  use  in  erecting  strongly 
fortified  keeps  as  in  the  days  that  were  past. 
Nor  was  it  any  longer  necessary  to  subordinate 
the  actual  plan  and  internal  arrangements  of 
the  house  to  considerations  of  defence  from 
attack,  unless  in  remoter  parts  of  the  country 
where  raids  might  still  have  to  be  provided 
against.  Those  who  built  new  houses  were 
therefore  free  for  the  first  time  to  make  comfort 
and  privacy  their  primary  consideration.  Such 
mediaeval  and  military  features  as  appear  in  the 
mansions  built  at  that  time  are  survivals  of  a 
tradition  which,  though  no  longer  suited  to  the 
needs  of  the  age,  was  familiar  and  not  easily 
thrown  aside.  What  is  really  new  and  typical  in 
the  architecture  of  the  time  is  its  strongly 
domestic  character. 

Another  effect  of  the  erection  of  the  lands  of 
the  ancient  Church  into  temporal  lordships  is 
worth  noting.  James  succeeded,  by  means  of 
such  gifts,  in  attaching  the  nobles  to  his  Court 
and  committing  them  to  his  policy.  They  thus 
insensibly  passed  from  the  position  of  more  or 
less  independent  feudal  lords  to  that  of  more 
or  less  subservient  courtiers.  This  change 


THE   DECAY   OF  FEUDALISM        103 

gives  a  transitional  note  to  the  social  atmosphere 
of  the  time.  Sir  Walter  Scott  points  out,  in  his 
introduction  to  the  Fortunes  of  Nigel,  that  "  in 
all  the  comedies  of  the  age  the  principal  char- 
acter for  gaiety  and  wit  is  the  young  heir,  who 
has  totally  altered  the  establishment  of  the 
father  to  whom  he  has  succeeded. "  The 
comedies  to  which  he  alludes — those  of  Shad- 
well  and  others — are  such  as  give  a  picture  of 
English  life.  But  the  change  was  sharper  still  in 
Scotland  ;  for  in  addition  to  the  influences  that 
operated  in  England  there  was  the  sudden 
introduction  of  new  standards  of  life  resulting 
from  the  Union  of  the  Crowns  in  1603  and 
the  contact  it  brought  with  a  much  wealthier 
civilisation.  William  Lithgow,  writing  in  1628, 
gives  a  rather  highly  coloured  picture  of  the 
age  :  "  All  the  gold  of  the  kingdom  is  daily 
transported  away  with  superfluous  posting  for 
court,  whence  they  never  return  anything  save 
spend-all,  end-all  ;  then  farewell  fortune  !  " 
And  he  talks  of  "  our  ignoble  gallants,  though 
nobly  born,  swallowing  up  the  honour  of  their 
predecessors  with  posting  foolery,  boy-winding 
horns,  gormandising  gluttony,  lust  and  vain 
apparel." 

On  every  side  we  have  evidence  of  the  social 
changes  that  followed  from  the  Scottish  King's 
accession  to  the  English  throne.  The  migration 
of  all  sorts  of  workers  from  the  country  to  the 


104      DOMESTIC   LIFE  IN  SCOTLAND 

towns,  which  had  been  going  steadily  on  for  a 
long  time  past,  brought  embarrassments  of  a 
grave  kind  to  the  country  nobles,  accustomed 
as  these  had  been  to  command  the  services  of 
skilled  country  craftsmen  by  a  local  bartering  of 
their  produce.  With  an  advancing  standard  of 
comfort  in  domestic  life,  and  an  increasing 
dependence  on  the  towns  to  supply  his  wants, 
the  country  noble  was  faced  with  the  difficulty 
of  converting  his  produce  into  cash,  and  when 
he  paid  a  visit  to  the  town  he  was  chagrined  to 
find  himself  a  person  of  much  less  influence  and 
importance  than  the  prosperous  tradesman  who 
had  a  ready  command  of  money.  His  hungry 
retinue,  which  he  felt  necessary  to  support  his 
dignity,  was  apt  not  only  to  add  to  his  difficul- 
ties but  also  to  expose  him  to  ridicule.  He  re- 
turned to  his  castle  wounded  and  embittered, 
too  firmly  rooted  in  the  past  to  be  capable  of 
adapting  himself  to  the  social  changes  which 
everywhere  confronted  him.  Very  different 
from  the  position  of  such  a  penniless  feudal 
lord  was  that  of  those  courtiers  who  had  been 
enriched  by  sharing  in  the  division  of  monastic 
property.  These  brought  back  from  Court  all 
kinds  of  new  and  luxurious  ideas,  and  the  castles 
in  which  they  had  been  born  and  bred  were 
condemned  as  unsuitable  to  the  kind  of  life  to 
which  they  had  now  become  accustomed. 
The  mediaeval  hall  was  out  of  date  and  must 


THE  DECAY   OF  FEUDALISM        105 

needs  be  replaced  by  a  family  dining-room. 
Their  nostrils  having  become  too  sensitive  to 
tolerate  the  smell  of  cooking,  the  kitchen  had 
to  be  banished  to  a  remoter  part  of  the  house. 
Drawing-rooms,  parlours  and  studies  began  to 
be  introduced,  and  the  privacy  of  the  upper 
bedrooms  was  secured  by  providing  separate 
access  to  each  by  turret  stairs,  instead  of  letting 
one  room  lead  into  another  as  in  earlier  times. 
Now  that  thick  walls  were  no  longer  necessary, 
rooms  were  more  brightly  lighted  and  pleasanter 
to  live  in,  and  though  the  English  development 
of  great  mullioned  and  transomed  windows 
never  took  root  in  Scotland,  the  fashion  of  bow 
windows  was  sometimes  adopted  so  as  to  com- 
mand a  wider  outlook  from  within.  The 
interiors  too  were  more  elaborately  decorated  ; 
the  walls  were  often  treated  with  wooden 
panelling,  and  the  ceilings  enriched  with 
elaborate  plaster  ornament  or,  as  in  the  long 
gallery  at  Pinkie,  painted  with  classical  or  other 
subjects. 

The  changed  conception  of  household  life 
which  is  expressed  in  these  architectural  innova- 
tions is  equally  clearly  reflected  in  the  domestic 
arrangements  and  furnishing.  In  some  houses 
the  hall  became  the  family  dining-room,  though 
the  old  trestle  tables  with  their  forms  might  be 
replaced  by  furniture  of  a  newer  type.  In 
others  the  hall  was  abandoned  as  a  "  living 


106      DOMESTIC   LIFE  IN  SCOTLAND 

room  "  and  the  meals  and  the  family  life  in 
general  were  transferred  from  it  to  the  more 
secluded  apartments  beyond.  Thus  the  hall, 
which  had  hitherto  been  the  main  arena  of  the 
social  life  of  the  house,  gradually  ceased  to  rank 
as  a  room  at  all,  and  degenerated  into  what  it 
has  become  in  our  modern  houses,  a  mere 
antechamber  or  entrance  lobby  in  which  stran- 
gers could  be  allowed  to  wait  without  interfering 
with  the  privacy  of  the  family.  This  process  of 
degeneration  was  further  accelerated  when  the 
hall  was  transferred  from  the  first  to  the  ground 
floor,  which  had  hitherto  been  given  up  to 
vaulted  cellars.  Sometimes  the  new  dining- 
room  was  in  practice  very  little  different  from 
the  old  hall  ;  the  antiquated  furniture  was  made 
use  of,  the  board  being  placed  along  the  wall, 
with  a  piece  of  tapestry,  or  a  painted  "  brod," 
or  picture,  hung  on  the  wall  behind  the  master's 
seat,  to  represent  the  old  parelling.  But  where 
a  family  was  inclined,  and  had  the  means,  to 
adopt  the  new  fashions  without  the  necessity  of 
compromise,  we  may  conceive  them  dining  in 
a  panelled  room,  well  lighted  and  with  a 
pleasant  outlook  ;  the  table  would  be  placed 
not  by  the  wall  but  in  the  middle  of  the  room, 
and  it  would  be  no  longer  a  long  board  on 
trestles,  but  a  solid  wainscot  or  walnut  table 
built  upon  turned  or  carved  "  branders  "  or 
legs,  and  made  with  two  or  three  leaves  for 


THE  DECAY   OF  FEUDALISM        107 

extension  when  necessary.  This  was  what  was 
called  "  ane  drawand  buird,"1  and  though 
generally  rectangular  it  was  sometimes  circular 
in  form,  for  we  find  occasional  references  to 
"  ane  roundel  burde  with  thrie  leavis."  Such 
a  table  is  very  significant  of  the  new  social 
customs  which  were  everywhere  asserting  them- 
selves. Little  general  conversation  can  have 
been  possible  when  those  who  dined  together 
sat  in  a  row  on  one  side  of  a  board  which  might 
be  fifteen  or  twenty  feet  long.  The  new 
fashion  allowed  the  guests  to  sit  more  or  less  in 
a  circle  round  a  roomier  table  whose  length 
could  be  adjusted  so  as  to  be  no  greater  than 
the  number  of  guests  required — a  much  more 
sociable  arrangement.  Another  change  was 
equally  significant.  At  mediaeval  meals  there 
had  been  only  one  chair,  as  we  have  seen,  and 
this  was  the  rightful  seat  of  the  master  of  the 
house — a  tradition  which  we  still  recognise 
when  we  hold  a  meeting  under  the  guidance  of 
someone  who  occupies  "  the  Chair."  Guests 
of  distinction  might  be  provided  with  stools 
but  most  of  the  company  sat  on  forms.  When 
James  IV,  for  instance,  met  his  affianced  bride, 
Margaret  Tudor,  daughter  of  Henry  VII,  at 
Newbattle,  a  contemporary  writer  tells  us 
"  The  tables  were  then  drest  and  served.  The 
Kynge  satt  in  the  Chayre  and  the  Queue  abouffe 

1  See  Plate  IX. 


108      DOMESTIC   LIFE   IN  SCOTLAND 

hym  on  hys  ryght  haund.  For  because  the 
Stole  of  the  Quene  was  not  for  hyr  ease,  he 
gaffe  hyr  the  sayde  Chayre,"  and  this  is  men- 
tioned, of  course,  as  one  of  the  graceful  and 
exceptional  courtesies  which  the  King  showed 
to  the  English  Princess.  But  with  the  passing 
away  of  feudalism  the  chair  lost  its  throne-like 
attributes,  and  from  the  beginning  of  the  seven- 
teenth century  we  find  chairs  appearing  in  sets 
for  family  use,  very  often  in  sets  of  four.  Thus 
an  inventory  of  1607  has  "  Foure  chyres  of 
walnut  trie,  price  of  the  piece  viij  lib.  Item, 
foure  chyres  of  aik,  price  of  ilk  chyre  iiij  lib." 
And  with  these  appear  "  aucht  fyne  buffeit 
stuillis,  price  of  ilk  stuill  xl  s."  The  use  of 
forms  for  sitting  on  at  meals  was  not,  of  course, 
at  once  abandoned  when  chairs  had  been  intro- 
duced, for  old  habits  are  not  so  easily  thrown 
off.  But  where  a  round  table  was  used,  forms 
were  obviously  impossible,  and  little  by  little  the 
custom  of  using  chairs  round  a  table  set  in  the 
middle  of  the  room  displaced  the  earlier  usage. 
We  have  some  interesting  particulars  of  a 
banquet  given  by  James  VI  to  the  Constable  of 
Castile  at  Whitehall  Palace  in  the  year  1604. 
After  grace  had  been  said,  the  King  and  Queen 
washed  their  hands  in  the  same  basin,-  while 
another  basin  served  for  the  Prince  and  the 
chief  guest.  The  King  and  Queen  sat  at  the 
head  of  the  table  at  some  distance  from  each 


PLATE  IX 


X 

? 

M     ? 

X    * 
£    ^ 


THE   DECAY   OF   FEUDALISM        109 

other,  under  the  canopy  of  state,  and  on  chairs 
of  brocade  with  cushions.  The  Prince  and  the 
Constable  sat  on  tabourets,  or  stools,  also  of 
brocade  with  cushions.  At  the  side  of  the  room 
stood  a  buffet  laden  with  vessels  of  gold,  and  of 
agate  and  other  precious  stones.  The  banquet 
was  accompanied  with  instrumental  music. 
The  guests  had  their  heads  covered,  but  when 
the  King  rose  to  drink  to  the  health  of  the  King 
and  Queen  of  Spain,  he  uncovered  his  head. 
The  banquet  lasted  for  three  hours,  and  then, 
the  cloth  having  been  removed,  everyone  rose 
up.  The  table,  we  are  told,  was  placed  upon 
the  ground,  which  seems  to  mean  that  it  was 
lifted  down  from  the  dais,  "  and  their  Majesties, 
standing  upon  it,  proceeded  to  wash  their 
hands,  which  is  stated  to  be  an  ancient 
ceremony."  Dancing  followed.  The  candid 
chronicler  relates  that  the  morning  after  the 
banquet  the  Constable  of  Castile  awoke  with  a 
slight  attack  of  lumbago  ! 

This  of  course  was  a  ceremonial  Court  dinner 
given  in  England,  and  no  doubt  under  the 
influence  of  English  standards  and  traditions. 
Very  considerable  allowances  would  naturally 
have  to  be  made  if  we  were  to  attempt  to  deduce 
from  it  any  general  impression  of  the  table 
manners  of  the  time.  Fynes  Moryson,  a 
graduate  of  Cambridge,  who  was  in  Scotland 
five  years  before  James  succeeded  to  the  English 


110      DOMESTIC   LIFE  IN  SCOTLAND 

Crown,  gives  us  the  following  picture  of  the 
conditions  of  domestic  life  of  the  time,  though 
it  must  be  remembered  that  his  impressions 
are  derived  simply  from  the  houses  of  such 
townsmen  or  countrymen  as  were  willing  to 
entertain  him  "  upon  acquaintance  or  en- 
treaty." "  Touching  their  diet,"  he  says,  "  they 
eate  much  red  Colewort  and  Cabbage,  but  little 
fresh  meate,  using  to  salt  their  Mutton  and 
Geese,  which  made  me  more  wonder,  that  they 
use  to  eate  Beef  without  salting.  The  Gentle- 
men reckon  their  revenewes,  not  by  rents  of 
monie,  but  by  chauldrons  of  victuals,  and  keep 
many  people  in  the  Families,  yet  living  most  on 
Corne  and  Rootes,  not  spending  any  great 
quantity  on  flesh.  Myself  was  at  a  Knight's 
House,  who  had  many  servants  to  attend  him, 
that  brought  in  his  meate  with  their  heads 
covered  with  blew  caps,  the  Table  being  more 
than  halfe  furnished  with  great  platters  of 
porredge  (or  broth),  each  having  a  little  piece  of 
sodden  meate  :  And  when  the  Table  was  served, 
the  servants  did  sit  downe  with  us,  but  the 
upper  messe  in  steede  of  porredge,  had  a 
Pullet  with  some  prunes  in  the  broth.  And  I 
observed  no  art  of  Cookery,  or  furniture  of 
Household  stuffe,  but  rather  rude  neglect  of 
both,  though  myself  and  my  companion,  sent 
from  the  Governour  of  Barwicke  about  border- 
ing affairs,  were  entertained  after  their  best 


THE   DECAY   OF   FEUDALISM        111 

manner.  The  Scots  living  then  in  factions, 
used  to  keepe  many  followers,  and  so  consumed 
their  revenew  of  victuals,  living  in  some  want 
of  money.  They  vulgarly  ate  harth  Cakes  of 
Gates,  but  in  Cities  have  also  wheaten  bread, 
which  for  the  most  part  was  bought  by  Cour- 
tiers, Gentlemen,  and  the  best  sort  of  Citizens. 
.  .  .  They  drinke  pure  Wines  not  with  sugar 
as  the  English,  yet  at  feasts  they  put  Comfits  in 
the  Wine  after  the  French  manner,  but  they 
had  not  our  Vinteners  fraud  to  mixe  their 
Wines.  The  better  sort  of  citizens  brew  ale, 
their  usuall  drinke,  which  will  distemper  a 
strangers  bodie."  Taylor,  the  water  poet,  who 
travelled  in  Scotland  some  twenty  years  later, 
and  who,  though  he  was  practically  dependent 
on  charity  for  his  entertainment,  was  received 
at  many  more  important  houses  than  his  pre- 
decessor, naturally  gives  a  more  flattering 
account  of  his  experiences  :  "  In  Scotland, 
beyond  Edenborough,  I  have  been  at  houses 
like  castles  for  building  :  the  master  of  the 
house  his  beaver  being  his  blue  bonnet,  one 
that  will  weare  no  other  shirts  but  of  the  flaxe 
that  growes  on  his  owne  ground,  and  of  his 
wives,  daughters  or  servants  spinning  ;  that 
hath  his  stockings,  hose  and  jerkin  of  the  wool 
of  his  owne  sheepes  backes  ;  that  never  (by  his 
pride  of  apparell)  caused  mercer,  draper,  silke- 
man,  embroyderer,  or  haberdasher  to  breake 


112      DOMESTIC   LIFE   IN  SCOTLAND 

and  turn  bankerupt  ;  and  yet  this  plaine  home- 
spunne  fellow  keepes  and  maintaines  thirty, 
forty,  fifty  servants,  or  perhaps  more,  every  day 
releeving  three  or  four  score  poore  peeple  at  his 
gate  ;  and  besides  all  this  can  give  noble  enter- 
tainement  for  foure  or  five  dayes  together,  to 
five  or  six  Earles  and  Lordes,  besides  Knights, 
Gentlemen  and  their  followers,  if  they  be  three 
or  foure  hundred  men  and  horse  of  them  ; 
where  they  shall  not  only  feede  but  feast,  and  not 
feast  but  banket.  .  .  .  Many  of  these  worthy 
housekeepers  there  are  in  Scotland,  amongst 
some  of  whom  I  was  entertained  ;  from  whence 
I  did  treuly  gather  these  aforesaid  observa- 
tions." 

In  Scottish  houses  the  dishes  used  at  table 
were  almost  invariably  of  pewter.  Well  equipped 
houses  on  a  large  scale  had  sometimes  as  many 
as  forty  dozen  pewter  plates  of  various  sizes, 
while  in  a  small  tradesman's  house  it  is  usual  to 
find  three  or  four  dozen  plates,  saucers  and 
trenchers.  Besides  these  dishes  there  would  be 
stoups  of  various  sizes,  generally  holding  a 
quart,  a  pint,  a  chopin  and  a  mutchkin  respec- 
tively ;  while  drinking  cups  of  "  tree,"  often 
with  bases  or  pedestals  of  pewter  or  silver,  were 
not  uncommon.  One  or  two  lavers  were  also 
part  of  the  ordinary  table  outfit.  Lavers  are 
generally  defined  as  basins  used  for  washing,  but 
this  is  quite  a  mistake.  In  old  documents  the 


THE  DECAY  OF  FEUDALISM        113 

laver  is  nearly  always  coupled  with  a  basin,  and 
the  laver  was  the  jug  or  ewer  from  which  water 
was  poured  over  the  hands  into  the  basin. 
These  lavers  and  basins  were  of  silver  or  of 
pewter  according  to  the  means  of  the  owner. 
Table  glass  was  still  something  of  a  rarity 
though  a  new  fashion  was  the  use  of  what  was 
called  a  wine-cellar,  fitted  with  "  the  haill 
flaccatis,  glass  and  furneissing  thairof."  In  one 
house  of  the  period  there  were  three  dozen 
"  fyne  lame  (loam,  or  earthenware)  potis  for 
desertis,"  but  the  employment  of  china  or 
earthenware  for  table  dishes  was  not  yet  intro- 
duced. The  salt-fatt  was  generally  of  silver, 
and  it  stood  in  the  middle  of  the  table,  and  the 
division  of  the  table  into  "  above  "  and  "  below 
the  salt  "  dates  from  this  period  and  not  from 
mediaeval  times,  when  the  dais  table  was 
reserved  for  those  of  superior  rank,  and  the 
others  sat  at  side  tables. 

The  persistence  of  ancient  customs  is  well 
illustrated  by  the  following  description  of  a 
dinner  in  a  farmhouse  towards  the  end  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  and  it  will  be  noticed  how 
closely  many  of  the  details  correspond  with  the 
procedure  at  meals  in  the  time  of  James  VI. 
"  At  noon,"  we  are  told,  "  the  gudewife  with 
her  maidens  proceeded  in  the  centre  of  the  well- 
swept  earthen  floor  to  erect  the  timber  or  iron 
trestles  and  thereon  to  extend  the  tafil  or 

8 


114      DOMESTIC   LIFE   IN  SCOTLAND 

dinner-boards.  In  the  better-class  farmhouses 
the  upper  part  of  the  dinner  boards  was  covered 
with  a  linen  cloth.  More  frequently  the  upper 
part  of  the  table,  at  which  sat  the  farmer  and 
family,  was  separated  from  the  lower  part  by 
a  chalk  line.  Occasionally  the  distinction  was 
indicated  by  the  position  of  the  salt-dish  ; 
those  who  sat  above  it  were  of  the  farmer's  kin, 
those  beneath  it  were  his  hirelings.  When  all 
were  seated,  they  uncovered  and  bowed  their 
heads  for  '  grace '  or  blessing.  .  .  .  Grace 
said,  all  the  males  resumed  their  bonnets,  which, 
summer  and  winter,  they  retained  in  eating. 
Before  taking  his  seat  the  farmer  washed  his 
hands,  but  the  hinds  were  expected  to  eat  with- 
out attempting  an  ablution."  No  doubt  in  out- 
of-the-way  parts  of  the  country  survivals  of 
such  table  traditions  might  still  be  found. 

In  the  description  that  has  been  quoted  of  a 
Court  banquet  at  Whitehall,  the  display  of  gold 
plate  on  a  buffet  was  mentioned,  and  in  private 
houses  in  Scotland  the  custom  of  laying  out 
the  "  weschel  "  on  a  suitable  piece  of  furniture 
was  still  kept  up.  For  this  purpose  the  compter, 
or  table,  had,  as  we  have  seen,  been  superseded 
by,  or  had  developed  into,  the  cupboard. 
Sometimes  the  top  of  the  cupboard  was  fitted 
with  several  steps,  or  stages,  the  number  of 
which,  according  to  the  French  usage,  was 
limited  in  proportion  to  a  man's  rank.  Cup- 


THE   DECAY   OF  FEUDALISM        115 

boards  with  three  "  gries  "  or  stages,  such  as 
were  inventoried  at  St.  Andrew's  Priory  in  1565, 
must  have  allowed  of  a  considerable  display  of 
plate.  In  France  the  presence  of  these  "  de- 
gres  "  seems  to  have  distinguished  the  "  dres- 
soir "  from  the  simpler  credence,  and  the 
dressoir  was  thus  a  more  elaborate  and  pre- 
tentious piece  of  furniture,  suited  to  the  houses 
of  wealthy  noblemen.  In  Scotland  the  dresser 
certainly  existed  as  early  as  1502,  for  an  English 
writer  describing  the  arrangements  at  Holy- 
rood  says, "  There  was  also  in  the  sam  Chammer 
...  a  ryche  Dressor,  after  the  Guyse  of  the 
Countre."  But  whatever  may  have  been  done 
at  Court,  the  dresser  was  certainly  not  in  com- 
mon use  under  that  name  in  private  houses,  and 
except  for  "  ane  dressour  for  setting  of  stoupis  " 
which  is  mentioned  as  in  the  Great  Hall  of 
Edinburgh  Castle  in  1 566,  the  word  is  compara- 
tively unknown  until  the  reign  of  James  VI, 
when  it  occurs  in  many  inventories  ;  the 
dressers  of  this  period  were  frequently  "  in- 
dented," i.e.  inlaid,  or  otherwise  ornamented, 
so  that  they  were  evidently  important  pieces  of 
furniture,  and  not  of  the  rude  type  which  we 
now  associate  with  the  kitchen  and  the  farm- 
house. The  display  of  silver  vessels  on  the 
dresser  had  hardly  the  same  significance  that  it 
had  in  mediaeval  times,  for  it  was  no  longer  a 
criterion  of  a  man's  wealth.  Money  was  more 


116      DOMESTIC   LIFE  IN   SCOTLAND 

plentiful  than  it  had  been,  but  on  the  other 
hand  there  were  many  more  openings  for  its 
employment,  so  that  there  was  neither  the  same 
practical  necessity  nor  the  same  inducement  to 
convert  accumulated  wealth  into  silver  plate- 
Still  the  houses  of  the  period  had  very  com- 
monly some  ten  or  twenty  handsome  silver 
vessels,  often  gilded  and  engraved,  including 
one  or  two  masers,  several  salt-fatts,  with  cups, 
goblets,  a  number  of  "  pieces  "  or  bowls,  a 
trencher,  a  laver  and  basin,  and  one  or  two 
dozen  spoons. 

I  have  mentioned  a  house  which  had  "  fyne 
lame  potis  for  desertis  "  and  the  same  house  had, 
as  early  as  1594,  "  lyttil  new  plaitis  for  desert." 
In  England  the  word  "  dessert  "  does  not  seem 
to  have  come  into  use  till  the  middle  of  the 
following  century,  and  Scotland  acquired  it 
from  France  direct.  In  its  origin  the  word 
refers  to  the  practice  of  removing  the  cloth  at 
the  end  of  a  meal,  when  the  table  was  "  dis- 
served "  or  cleared,  and  the  fruits  and  sweets 
which  followed  were  partaken  of  in  a  separate 
room.  Like  many  another  obsolete  custom 
this  usage  is  preserved  in  our  present  day 
speech  ;  for  when  we  distinguish  between  two 
sizes  of  spoons  by  calling  one  a  "  table  spoon  " 
and  the  other  a  "  dessert  spoon  "  we  imply  that 
the  dessert  was  not  taken  at  the  table  where  the 
meal  was  served.  Sometimes  the  dessert  was 


THE   DECAY   OF  FEUDALISM        117 

called  "  the  banquet,"  a  name  applied  to  any 
light  refreshment  served  between  regular  meals. 
When  James  VI  visited  New  College,  St. 
Andrews,  and  heard  a  disputation  between  the 
"  Bischope  "  and  Andrew  Melville,  we  read 
that  "  the  King,  in  his  mother  toung,  maid  sum 
distingoes,  and  discoursit  a  whyll  thairon,"  and 
thereafter  passed  to  the  College  Hall,  where 
there  had  been  prepared  "  a  banquet  of  wat  and 
dry  confectiones,  with  all  sortes  of  wyne, 
wharat  his  Majestic  camped  verie  merrilie  a 
guid  whyll."  You  may  still  see  the  word 
banquet  used  in  this  sense  in  the  newspaper 
reports  of  some  municipal  or  other  social 
gathering  in  Scotland,  at  which  the  guests  are 
entertained  to  "  a  banquet  of  cake  and  wine." 

The  changes  characteristic  of  the  period  were 
not,  of  course,  confined  to  the  dining-room,  and 
indeed  the  parlours  or  withdrawing  rooms  that 
were  coming  into  use,  and  which  displaced  the 
chamber  of  dais  or  principal  bedroom  to  which 
a  few  favoured  guests  had  formerly  retired  after 
meals,  were  in  themselves  very  significant  of 
the  new  ideas  of  domestic  life.  In  such  rooms 
the  family  could  enjoy  itself  in  peace,  either 
with  or  without  the  company  of  chosen  guests, 
and  unembarrassed  by  the  presence  of  all  sorts 
of  dependents  and  retainers.  The  introduction 
of  chairs  for  family  use  allowed  of  more  variety 
and  informality  of  grouping  for  conversation  or 


118      DOMESTIC  LIFE  IN  SCOTLAND 

like  purposes  than  had  been  possible  when 
forms,  settles  and  chests  had  been  the  only 
seats.  It  also  led  to  development  in  the  chairs 
themselves.  There  are  frequent  references 
about  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century  to 
the  covering  of  chairs  with  velvet,  satin,  and 
other  materials — particularly  in  connection  with 
the  royal  household.  Such  covering  was  how- 
ever merely  for  purposes  of  decoration,  and 
comfort  was  provided  in  those  days  by  the  use 
of  separate  cushions.  But  in  James  VFs  time 
we  have,  among  other  novelties,  the  introduc- 
tion of  upholstered  chairs — chairs  so  stuffed  or 
padded  as  not  to  require  the  additional  use  of 
cushions.  The  earliest  examples  seem  naturally 
to  have  been  imported  from  abroad.  In  1612 
we  read  of  "  ane  mekill  Frenche  bakit  and 
buffit  chyre,"  and  a  few  years  later  of  "  twa 
grit  bakit  Inglis  chyres,  bust  and  steikit  in  the 
sait  with  ane  cover  of  ledder  thairin  and  coverit 
lykwise  with  ledder  on  the  bak  and  stampit." 
Thus  perhaps  began  the  distinction  between 
what  we  may  call  the  dining-room  and  the 
drawing-room  types  of  chair — the  former  de- 
signed for  use  at  meals  only,  the  latter  adapted 
to  less  stereotyped  attitudes  and  uses  and 
affording  comfort  in  hours  of  social  relaxation. 
Another  piece  of  furniture  that  seems  to  have 
come  rather  suddenly  into  favour  at  this  time 
was  the  Taffel.  The  Dutch  or  German  origin 


THE  DECAY  OF  FEUDALISM        119 

of  the  word  is  obvious,  and  the  word  was  prob- 
ably picked  up  and  imported  as  a  direct  result 
of  trading  with  these  countries.  It  does  not 
seem  to  have  been  generally  adopted  in  England, 
and  its  occasional  use  there  seems  to  be  due  to 
the  influence  of  Scottish  usages  at  court.  The 
TafTel,  or  Taiffel,  was,  as  its  name  implies,  a 
table,  but  an  examination  of  early  references 
shows  that  it  was  its  small  size,  or  its  lightness, 
that  distinguished  it  from  other  tables.  In 
valuations  of  furniture  its  value  is  always  com- 
paratively low  ;  sometimes  we  read  of  "  buird 
claithis  for  the  hallbuird,  and  ane  littil  ane  for 
ane  taiffelbuird"  George  Tait,  a  burgess  of 
Edinburgh,  had  among  his  furniture  (1622)  "ane 
chyre  with  ane  bak  for  ane  taffle  "  ;  that  is,  a 
chair  convertible  into  a  small  table  by  bringing 
forward  on  its  swivels  the  table-top  which 
formed  the  back  of  the  chair.  From  a  number 
of  such  allusions  we  may  infer  that  the  taffel 
was  in  effect  what  is  called  an  occasional  table, 
such  as  could  be  used  for  chess  or  cards,  and 
could  be  easily  lifted  from  one  part  of  the  room 
to  another.  The  use  of  such  light  tables,  with 
the  adoption  of  chairs  instead  of  forms,  indicates 
the  increased  mobility  and  variety  of  the  new 
domestic  life.  Games  could  be  played  by  the 
fireside  on  a  winter  evening  ;  at  other  times  the 
table  might  be  taken  to  the  window  so  that  ladies 
might  occupy  themselves  with  needlework  and 


conversation  at  the  same  time  and  watch  what- 
ever there  might  be  to  interest  them  in  the 
world  without.  Houses  were  now  often  built 
on  sites  chosen  for  their  pleasant  outlook  ; 
more  and  more  attention  was  being  paid  to 
gardens.  Since  the  days  when  James  IV  had 
had  the  walls  of  Stirling  and  Holyrood  plastered 
to  suit  the  ideas  of  comfort  of  his  English  Queen, 
the  plastering  of  the  rooms  in  private  houses 
had  become  usual,  and  the  interiors  were  no 
longer  so  cold  and  draughty  as  they  must  have 
been  when  tapestry  flapped  upon  stone  walls  ; 
and  it  was  pleasant  to  sit  in  comfort  within, 
enjoying  a  freedom  and  seclusion  which  had 
been  unattainable  in  the  mediaeval  hall  with  its 
dais  and  all  the  formality  and  the  scheme  of 
social  precedence  that  the  dais  implied. 

In  such  rooms  large  cabinets  or  aumries1  from 
Holland  now  began  to  appear,  and  they  were 
valued  not  merely  for  the  useful  accommoda- 
tion they  supplied,  but  also  as  pieces  of  furni- 
ture which  gave  the  rooms  a  certain  beauty  and 
dignity.  Carpets  and  rugs  were  beginning  to 
displace  the  use  of  bent  grass  to  cover  the  floors, 
though  at  first  they  were  used  rather  as  table- 
covers.  "  Steikit  green  mats  "  are  fairly  often 
met  with,  and  James  Melvill,  who  died  in  1613, 
had  one  of  these,  besides  "  Scots  nedle-worke 
carpetts  "  in  his  hall  and  chamber.  Books  were 
beginning  to  play  an  important  part  in  house- 

1  See  Plate  X. 


PLATE  X 


INDENTED   AUMRIE,    KNOWN   AS   "QUEEN   ANNA'S    PRESS" 
Property  of  Sir  John  Sterling  Maxwell,  Bart. 


THE  DECAY  OF  FEUDALISM        121 

hold  life,  and  one  significant  feature  in  the  in- 
ventories of  the  time  is  the  appearance  of  the 
family  Bible.  The  printing  of  Bassendyne's 
Bible  had  been  completed  by  Arbuthnott  in 
1579,  and  a  year  later  the  Town  Council  of 
Edinburgh  had  ordered  "  all  nychtbouris  of 
this  burgh,  substantious  house  halderis,  to  haif 
ane  bybill  in  thair  houssis  under  the  paynes 
contenit  in  the  actes  of  Parliament  maid 
thairanent."  Accordingly  it  is  common  to  find 
houses  provided  with  "  ane  grit  houss  Bibill," 
sometimes  accompanied  by  "  ane  little  bybill." 
One  Edinburgh  citizen  left  among  his  possessions 
"  ane  grit  bibill  of  Lumbard  volum  of  the  best 
sort  and  fynnest  print,  ouergilt,  pryce  thairof 
xl  lib.  Item  ane  uther  bibill  of  Arbuthnots 
print,  pryce  thairof  x  lib.  Item  mair  ane 
psalme  buik,  pryce  x  s." 

Secular  works  included  classical  authors, 
books  of  chronicles,  as  well  as  of  law,  arith- 
metic, philosophy  and  other  departments  of 
learning.  Patrick  Quhytlaw  of  New  Grange, 
dying  in  1607,  left  "  twa  gret  kistis  full  of 
buikis  of  theologie,  of  the  laws,  physick,  and 
utheris,  to  the  number  of  v  c.  buikis  " — a  very 
considerable  library  for  the  time.  David 
Wedderburn,  the  Dundee  merchant,  had  a 
considerable  collection,  from  which  he  used  to 
lend  freely  to  his  friends  and  customers.  To  a 
neighbouring  laird's  son  he  lends  "  Metamor- 


122      DOMESTIC  LIFE  IN   SCOTLAND 

phosis  Ovidii  in  Laten  with  the  pictouris,  bund 
in  ane  swynis  skin  of  werry  braw  binding  .  .  . 
for  the  space  of  ane  moneth."  His  Blundevill 
Drackis  Voyages  was  in  great  request,  and 
another  volume  described  as  "  my  buik  of 
walking  sprittis  "  seems  to  have  attracted 
curious  enquirers. 

The  taste  for  voyages  and  "  Buikis  of  the 
Sie  "  was  characteristic  of  the  time,  for  the 
advances  in  astronomy  and  navigation  which 
followed  from  the  Renaissance,  and  from  such 
events  as  Columbus'  discovery  of  the  "  new 
fund  Yle,"  as  a  contemporary  Scottish  poet 
calls  America,  had  led  to  a  romantic  interest  in 
geographical  knowledge.  For  the  same  reason 
it  is  not  unusual  to  find  a  "  Mappamounde,"  or 
map  of  the  world,  used  as  a  piece  of  decoration 
in  the  rooms  of  the  period.  In  the  "  Chalmer 
of  the  Foir  Werk  "  at  Cauldar  there  was  one  of 
these  described  as  "  ane  brodit  cart  contenynge 
all  cuntras,"  and  such  maps,  whether  printed  or 
worked  with  the  needle,  were  sometimes  even 
hung  in  the  place  of  honour  "  abune  the  burde." 
Paintings  cannot  be  said  to  have  come  into 
general  vogue  in  Scottish  houses,  but  here  and 
there  enthusiasts  were  buying  pictures  abroad 
and  helping  to  spread  the  taste  for  pictorial  art 
in  Scotland.  One  of  these  pioneers  was  Wedder- 
burn  of  Dundee,  already  mentioned,  who  used 
to  arrange  with  friends  going  abroad  to  bring 


THE   DECAY   OF   FEUDALISM        123 

him  back  pictures  from  France  or  Flanders. 
John  Barclay  of  Edinburgh,  left  "  thrie  paintit 
brodis  with  stories,"  and  a  year  or  two  later  one 
Erasmus  Durie  left  as  many  as  "  seavin  pic- 
touris."  The  time  was  drawing  near  when  the 
taste  for  pictures  was  to  be  much  more  widely 
diffused,  and  when  George  Jamesone  was  to  set 
a  high  standard  for  Scottish  portrait  painters. 
The  sister  art  of  music  had  also  its  devotees 
in  Scotland.  Even  by  the  beginning  of  the 
sixteenth  century  we  have  records  of  the  use  of 
the  harp,  the  fiddle,  the  lute,  the  organis,1  the 
monocord,  the  taubron,  the  clarescha,  the  drone 
and  the  schalmis — an  instrument  of  the  clarinet 
type.  Some  verses  written  on  the  arrival  of 
Anne  of  Denmark,  nearly  a  century  later,  speak 
also  of  the  regals,  hautboy,  virginals,  gitterns, 
trumpets,  timbrels,  seistar  sumphion,  pipe  and 
clarion.  No  doubt  the  pre- Reformation  Church 
had  done  a  good  deal  in  spreading  a  taste  for 
music  and  in  providing  a  class  of  trained 
musicians.  Writing  of  his  student  days  in  St. 
Andrews,  which  ended  in  1574,  James  Melvill 
says,  "  I  lerned  my  musicke  of  ane  Alexander 
Smithe,  servant  to  the  Primarius  of  our 
Collage,  wha  had  been  treaned  upe  amangis  the 
mounkis  in  the  Abbay.  I  lerned  of  him  the  gam 
(gamut  or  scale),  pleane-song  and  mony  of  the 
treables  of  the  Psalmes.  ...  I  lovit  singing 
and  playing  on  instrumentis  passing  weill  and 

1  See  Plate  XI. 


124      DOMESTIC   LIFE   IN  SCOTLAND 

wad  gladlie  spend  tyme  whar  the  exerceise 
thairof  was  within  the  Collage  ;  for  twa  or  thrie 
of  our  condisciples  played  fellon  weil  on  the 
virginals,  and  an  uther  on  the  lute  and  githorn. 
Our  Regent  also  had  the  pinalds  in  his  chalmer, 
and  lernit  something,  and  I  eftir  him."  It  is 
hard  to  say  what  the  "  pinalds  "  were,  unless 
the  word  is  a  form  of  "  spinet."  In  Italy  the 
spinet  dates  from  1503,  but  the  name  "  virgin- 
alls  "  was  used  in  England  for  all  such  key- 
board instruments  for  long  after  this,  and  the 
earliest  reference  to  a  spinet  quoted  in  the 
New  English  Dictionary  is  from  Pepys'  Diary 
in  1664.  Melville's  reference  goes  back  to  a 
date  ninety  years  earlier  than  this,  though  it 
was  not  written  till  about  1600.  Still,  it  is 
difficult  to  see  what  distinction  was  intended 
between  "  virginalls  "  and  "  spinet."  John 
Florio,  in  his  New  Worlde  of  Wordes  gives  a 
"  paire  of  virginalles  "  as  equivalent  to  the 
Italian  "  spinetta."  Another  instrument  of  the 
same  kind  was  the  clavichord,  whose  tone,  how- 
ever, was  produced  by  a  tangent  instead  of  by 
the  plucking  of  a  quill.  These  keyboard  instru- 
ments are  seldom  found  in  the  inventories  of 
Scottish  houses  of  this  period,  yet  we  know  that 
there  was  a  good  deal  of  domestic  music.  In 
Glasgow,  for  instance,  before  the  Union  of  the 
Crowns,  there  was  a  musical  coterie,  for  a  con- 
temporary diarist  tells  us  of  "a  gentillman's 


'PLATE  XI 


I'AIRE   OF   ORCAMS    '   (FIFTEENTH    CENTURY)   FROM    TKII'TVCH    BY 
VAN    DER   GOES    AT    HOI.VROOD    1'AI.ACE 
CufYright  of  His  Majesty  the  Kin? 


THE   DECAY   OF  FEUDALISM        125 

house  in  the  town  wha  enterteined  maist  expert 
singars  and  playars,  and  brought  upe  all  his 
berns  thairin."  And  no  doubt  there  were 
similar  groups  of  musical  people  elsewhere,  and 
especially  perhaps  in  the  cathedral  towns,  where 
the  musical  tradition  still  lingered. 

Returning  from  this  musical  digression 
to  the  furnishing  of  the  sitting-rooms  of  the 
period,  we  may  note  that  clocks  were  not 
yet  in  common  use,  and  the  hour-glass  still 
stood  on  many  a  chimneypiece.  There  too 
might  sometimes  be  found  "  ane  boyst  of 
tubacco,"  for,  in  spite  of  King  James's  pre- 
judices, the  practice  of  smoking  was  steadily 
gaining  ground  ;  and  the  tinder  match-box  no 
doubt  lay  conveniently  to  hand.  In  the  window 
there  might  be  a  wire  cage  containing  a  laverock, 
and  among  the  odds  and  ends  that  lay  about 
the  room  were  such  things  as  inkhorns  and 
penners,  a  board  and  men  for  chess  and  back- 
gammon, and  materials  for  ladies'  work.  In 
the  bedrooms  we  should  find  brushes  and 
combs,  sponges  and  shoe-horns,  while  warming- 
pans  were  in  use  for  warming  the  beds. 

How  did  life  pass  in  these  days  ?  The  gentle- 
men of  leisure  had  such  sports  as  golf,  catchpole, 
archery,  hawking  and  coursing  to  amuse  them, 
and  golf  balls,  as  well  as  many  other  requisites 
used  in  games  of  the  period,  were  imported 
from  Flanders.  The  following  contemporary 


126      DOMESTIC   LIFE   IN   SCOTLAND 

advice  given  to  "  Gentillmen  "  gives  an  idea  of 
their  preoccupations  and  responsibilities  : 

First,  in  the  mornyng,  get  vp  with  gud  intent ; 
To  do  your  God  seruice  be  ye  diligent  ; 
To  go  to  preiching  ye  do  your  bissy  ceure, 
Syne  to  your  sport  ye  pass  with  avanteur  ;  .  .  . 
Exclude  surfatt  and  spend  with  discretioun, 
And  luve  your  servand  of  gud  condition  ; 
Lak  not  your  kin,  suppois  thair  wit  be  rude, 
But  help  your  freind  in  to  his  quarrell  guid.  .  .  . 

His  wife  is  to  be  "  cherreissit  weill,"  and, 
subject  to  her  satisfactory  behaviour,  loved  as 
his  own  life.  A  sharp  distinction  is  called  for 
in  the  treatment  of  sons  and  of  daughters  : 

Teiche  weill  your  sons,  and  gif  him  your  counsale  ; 
Bot  hald  your  dochter  ay  in  stret  bensale  (control). 

Finally,  the  gentleman  is  to  "  pay  the  seruand 
his  fie  for  his  labour,"  and  to  "  mak  an  leill  man 
his  executeur,"  to  keep  patience  under  trials 
till  God  send  remeid,  and  to  make  "  Schir 
Ewstace,"  the  uncomplaining  huntsman  saint, 
his  pattern  and  example. 

As  to  the  life  of  women,  when  a  lady  of 
fashion  awoke  in  the  morning  she  found  her 
fire  already  burning  brightly,  and  as  soon  as  she 
was  ready  to  rise  her  maidens  brought  her  her 
slippers  and  her  wyliecoat,  comfortably  warmed 
for  her  use.  Placing  a  velvet  stool  for  her  near 
the  fire,  two  of  the  maidens  combed  her  hair 
while  she  held  her  steel  glass  in  her  hand  and 


THE  DECAY   OF  FEUDALISM        127 

superintended  their  labours.  When  she  was 
fully  dressed  she  drank  a  cup  of  Malvoisie, 
sweetened  with  sugar,  and  then  passed  out  into 
the  garden  for  a  breath  of  fresh  air,  and  ordered 
her  page  to  prepare  her  "  disjune,"  or  dejeuner, 
consisting  perhaps  of  a  freshly  roasted  pair  of 
plovers,  a  partridge  and  a  quail,  with  a  cup  of 
sack.  The  next  duty  is  to  order  the  day's 
dinner  ;  and  this  done  she  goes  to  inspect  her 
maidservants  at  their  work,  some  of  them 
employed  in  making  quoifs,  ruffs  and  other  fine 
linen  for  her  own  use  ;  and  of  all  such  work 
she  is  a  severe  and  exacting  critic,  scolding  the 
maidens  unmercifully  if  their  work  falls  short 
of  her  standard.  Pleasantly  fatigued  with  her 
exertions,  she  withdraws  to  her  chamber,  for  it 
is  now  past  noon,  and  refreshes  herself  with 
whatever  meat  she  has  ordered  and  drinks  a 
cup  or  two  of  Muscadel,  finishing  off  the  repast 
with  some  raisins  or  capers.  The  afternoon  has 
now  to  be  passed  till  supper-time,  and  she  may 
either  sit  in  the  garden,  or,  if  the  day  is  cold,  fall 
asleep  over  a  book  at  the  fire.  Supper  is  the 
meal  of  the  day,  and  as  the  meal  proceeds 
musicians  enter  and  stimulate  digestion  by 
playing  on  the  organs,  the  lute  and  viol  and 
shalm  and  timbrel.  Then  comes  an  evening 
stroll  in  the  garden,  after  which  her  ladyship 
retires  to  her  chamber  and  sits  gossiping  so  long 
with  her  maidens  that  a  final  light  collation  is 


128      DOMESTIC   LIFE   IN   SCOTLAND 

required,  with  a  draught  of  Rhenish  wine,  to 
fortify  her  for  the  hours  of  sleep. 

Sometimes,  of  course,  she  leaves  her  house 
and  garden  and  visits  the  tailor  or  the  jeweller. 
Dressed  in  a  rich  and  splendid  robe,  with  double 
garnishings  of  gold,  and  her  hair  surmounted 
with  crape,  she  is  decked  by  her  maidens  with  a 
velvet  hat  and  her  hood  of  state,  and  a  mask  is 
added  to  shield  her  complexion.  A  great  gold 
chain  is  hung  round  her  neck,  with  a  necklace 
and  half-chains  of  Paris  work  of  exceptional 
fineness  ;  and  her  shoes  are  of  velvet,  over  silk 
stockings.  At  the  tailor's  she  discusses  the  last 
new  "  guise  "  or  fashion — whether  her  new 
gown  is  to  be  made  full,  with  many  plaits  and 
folds,  or  whether  it  is  to  fit  more  closely  to  the 
figure  ;  and  there  is  the  question  of  colour  and 
materials,  and  she  spends  delightful  hours  com- 
paring and  examining  plain  and  figured  velvets, 
silks,  satins,  damask  and  grograin.  There  is 
plenty  of  room  for  fancy  and  fine  taste  ;  for 
effects  are  got  by  cutting  out  a  cloth  over  a 
material  of  different  colour,  and  success  in  this 
pasmenting,  or  applique  work,  calls  for  both 
natural  instinct  and  artistic  imagination  ;  and  as 
Madam  handles  the  rich  stuffs,  savouring  the 
texture  between  her  heavily  jewelled  fingers, 
and  from  time  to  time  drawing  back  the  gold 
bracelets  which  keep  slipping  over  her  wrists, 
her  brain  is  ever  at  work  conceiving  combina- 


THE   DECAY   OF  FEUDALISM        129 

tions  of  colour  and  material,  rejecting  effects 
unsuitable  to  her  own  style  and  figure,  and 
arriving  at  ideas  which  the  tailor  will  have 
to  express  in  beautiful  and  becoming 
costume. 

Such  a  picture  as  I  have  given  of  the  life  of 
the  idle  rich  at  the  close  of  the  sixteenth  century 
— a  picture  which  is  borrowed  in  every  detail 
from  contemporary  notes — must  seem  one  of 
gross  self-indulgence.  The  eating  and  drinking 
appears  indecent  to  those  who  have  tightened 
their  belts  under  the  chastening  compulsion  of 
the  Food  Controller.  And,  indeed,  contemporary 
writers  tell  us  that  in  those  days  surfeit  killed 
more  than  sword  and  knife,  and  the  medical 
counsels  of  the  time  were  largely  directed 
against  the  perils  of  over-eating.  Sometimes 
these  counsels  merely  give  blunt  expression  to 
familiar,  if  inglorious,  experience  : 

Quha  wald  tak  rest  upoun  the  nicht, 
The  supper  sowld  be  schort  and  licht ; 
The  stommok  hes  ane  full  grit  pane 
Quhen  at  the  supper  mekle  is  tane. 

Drinks  that  have  gone  flat  are  to  be  avoided,  as 
also  are  mixed  meats.  The  various  ways  of 
cooking  meat  are  discussed  ;  :<  bulyeit  "  or 
boiled  meat,  we  are  told,  "  fosteris  weill  "  ; 
"  rostit  "  meat  is  said  to  dry  the  blood  ;  of  salt 
meat  there  is  never  a  good  word  to  say  ;  it  is 

9 


130      DOMESTIC   LIFE   IN   SCOTLAND 

pronounced  "  warst  of  ony  fude,"  and  we  are 
warned  that  it 

dois  grit  oppressioun 
To  feble  stomokis  that  nan  nocht  refrane  ; 
For  thingis  contrair  to  thyne  complexioun 
Off  gredy  throttis  the  stomokis  has  grit  pane. 

Much  of  the  advice  is  sound.  One  is  not  to 
eat  till  the  previous  meal  has  been  "  weill 
degest  "  ;  that  nourishes  best  which  savours 
best  ;  "  cleir  air  and  walking  makis  gud  deges- 
tioun,"  and  we  are  to  beware  of  excess  and  of 
"  nodding  heidis  and  of  candill  licht,"  or,  in 
other  words,  late  hours.  Other  counsels  are 
more  arbitrary.  We  are  to  comb  our  hair  in  the 
morning,  but  "  at  evin  I  the  forbid,"  no  reason 
being  given.  Sleeping  at  noon  is  forbidden, 
for  of  that  "  cumis  grit  sweirnes  "  or  disinclina- 
tion for  work  ;  and  we  are  not  at  any  time  to 
sleep  on  our  back,  which  will  hasten  us  to  a 
sudden  death.  To  "  couer  weill  thy  heid  "  is 
advised  for  health  of  body  ;  and  to  protect  us 
from  "  mistis  blak,  and  air  of  pestilence  "  we 
are  to  have  a  fire  in  the  morning  and  a  covered 
bed,  meaning,  perhaps,  a  closely  curtained  bed, 
at  eve.  On  the  whole  the  advice  given  is 
founded  on  a  sense  of  the  importance  of  self- 
control  and  moderation  : 


Quhair  thyn  awin  gouernance  may  hald  thyn  hele  (health). 
Preiss  neuir  with  medicinaris  for  to  dele. 


THE  DECAY   OF  FEUDALISM        131 

As  to  children's  life  in  those  early  days,  they 
were  never  at  a  loss  for  toys,  for  the  best  were 
those  they  devised  for  their  own  use.  In 
mediaeval  illustrations  we  see  children  sailing 
little  boats,  running  with  paper  windmills  at  the 
end  of  a  stick,  and  amusing  themselves  in  all 
kinds  of  simple  ways.  In  James  VFs  time  the 
development  of  a  more  intimate  family  life 
brought  with  it  a  new  attention  by  grown-up 
people  to  the  natural  tastes  of  the  young,  and 
parents  had  new  opportunities  of  knowing  their 
children  and  taking  pleasure  in  their  company. 
Among  the  imports  of  the  time  we  find  chil- 
dren's dolls,  under  the  name  of  :<  babeis," 
besides  rattles  and  whistles,  by  which  the  over- 
flowing energy  of  youth  could  be  agreeably 
expressed  in  ear-splitting  noise.  If  history  is 
sometimes  dull,  surely  it  is  because  we  hear  so 
little  of  children  in  it,  and  the  toys  and  lesson 
books  and  baby  coats  and  shoes  of  a  bygone  age 
have  a  magical  gift  in  humanising  history  and 
putting  us  in  kindlier  touch  with  the  past. 
How  vividly  we  feel  the  reality  of  Queen  Mary's 
time  when  we  read  of  a  little  boy  who,  as  he  sat 
by  the  sea  by  Montrose  links,  had  two  reasons 
for  being  specially  happy.  One  was  that  his 
penknife  had  just  been  polished  and  sharpened 
by  a  cutler  who  had  new  come  to  the  town  ;  and 
the  other  was  that  he  had  that  morning  bought  a 
"  pennie-worthe  of  aples."  What  could  be 


132      DOMESTIC  LIFE  IN  SCOTLAND 

more  thrilling  than  to  cut  thin  shavings  from  an 
apple  with  the  newly  sharpened  knife  ?  As  he 
was  putting  one  of  these  shavings  in  his  mouth, 
some  sound  attracted  his  attention  and  he  began 
to  "  lope  upe  upon  a  little  sandie  bray  "  ;  and, 
the  loose  sand  slipping  beneath  his  feet,  he  fell, 
and  the  knife,  just  missing  his  stomach,  pierced 
his  left  knee  to  the  bone  ;  "  wherby,"  says  this 
son  of  the  Reformation,  who  had  shortly  before 
injured  a  schoolfellow  "  in  the  schin  of  the  lag  " 
with  the  same  knife,  "  wherby  the  aequitie  of 
God's  judgment  and  my  conscience  struck  me 
sa,  that  I  was  the  mair  war  of  knyffes  all  my 
dayes  !  " 

Letters  written  in  the  early  years  of  the  seven- 
teenth century  throw  occasional  flashes  of  light 
on  the  relations  between  parents  and  children, 
and  as  we  read  we  realise  that,  if  there  was  more 
ceremony  between  the  young  and  their  elders 
than  is  the  fashion  of  our  day,  there  were  the 
same  natural  affections,  and  also  the  same  recur- 
ring problems  as  those  which  mark  family  life  in 
our  own  time.  Children,  it  appears,  had  even 
then  an  exasperating  habit  of  outgrowing  their 
clothes.  And  though  the  mothers  often  took 
an  indulgent  view  of  this  symptom  of  healthy 
growth  and  would  not  have  been  unwilling  to 
see  their  darlings  in  new  and  becoming  apparel, 
the  fathers  were  of  sterner  stuff,  refused  to 
admit  that  their  children  were  going  about  like 


THE   DECAY  OF  FEUDALISM        133 

frights,  thought  that  the  old  clothes  might  very 
well  do  for  a  bit  yet,  and,  in  fact,  used  every 
art  to  evade  an  uncongenial  subject.  We  can 
sympathise  with  the  Laird  of  Glenfalloch  who, 
being  off  on  his  travels  with  his  lady  in  1619, 
and  having  left  his  two  sons  at  Haddington  in 
charge  of  a  tutor,  received  a  letter  in  which 
flattering  reports  on  the  boys'  educational 
progress  were  ingeniously  combined  with  the 
most  unsparing  condemnation  of  their  ward- 
robe. "  Send  alsmekle  cloth  as  will  be  ane 
gown  to  Jhone,  and  his  aid  gown  wald  serue  for 
ane  gown  to  Duncane.  Jhone  will  be  ane 
schollar,  God  willing,  if  he  be  nocht  interrupted. 
Duncane  begins  weill,  God  saiff  him.  Assure 
the  lady  your  wiffe  that  I  sail  haiff  ane  special 
cair  under  God  of  her  sonnes  that  ar  heir,  and 
requeist  her  nocht  to  think  long  eftir  thame. 
The  dowblet  ye  caust  mak  to  Duncane  is  now 
up  at  the  slot  of  his  breist.  Ye  wald  say  that  he 
wearis  his  belt  as  men  sayis  Mr.  George 
Buchanan  did  weare  his,  the  dowblet  is  growen 
so  schort."  After  some  reflections  on  ecclesi- 
astical affairs  the  tutor  concludes  his  letter, 
"  God  His  mercy  be  with  you,  and  restis  your 
awin,  efter  the  aid  maner,  Mr.  William 
Bowie."  And  then,  knowing  his  laird,  and 
foreseeing  that  his  remarks  on  church 
politics  and  his  pious  aspirations  may  be 
made  use  of  to  banish  the  memory  of  more 


134      DOMESTIC   LIFE   IN   SCOTLAND 

pressing  and  practical  questions,  he  returns 
to  the  charge  in  one  peremptory  post- 
script— "  Duncane  mon  haiff  an  vther  dow- 
blett." 


LECTURE  V 
THE  KING   OR  THE  COVENANT 

CHARLES   I,    1625-1649 

The  Covenanting  Period — Ascetic  views  of  life — A 
Covenanter's  courtship,  with  an  eighteenth-century  con- 
trast— Conditions  unfavourable  to  the  development  of 
furniture — New  Scottish  industries — Furniture  and  fashions 
from  London — A  Scottish  nobleman's  house — "  The 
laiche  hall  " — The  dining-room  and  silver  plate — The 
drawing-room — New  ideas  in  furniture  and  ornaments — 
The  lettermeitt  house — Bedrooms — Development  of  beds 
in  Scotland — The  knop  sek — The  strek  bed — The  leta- 
camp  bed — Kaissit  beds — The  box-ped  or  buistie — The 
"  laych-rynnand  "  or  truckle  bed — The  laird's  mistake — 
The  four-poster — Royal  beds — Devices  on  the  Queen  of 
Scots'  bed — Mourning  beds  and  mourning  customs — 
Queen  Mary's  bed-curtains  from  Loch  Leven — Heraldic 
decoration  of  beds — Changing  fashions  in  colours  and 
colour  names. 

OUR  survey  of  the  development  of 
domestic  life  in  Scotland  now  brings 
us  to  the  Covenanting  period,  when  the 
ecclesiastical  differences  which  had  manifested 
themselves  under  James  VI  became  more  acute, 
and  the  national  preference  for  a  Presbyterian 
system  of  church  government  brought  the 
people  into  direct  conflict  with  the  throne  and 
began  to  loosen  their  tenacious  loyalty  to  the 
House  of  Stuart.  By  his  marriage  with  the 
Catholic  princess,  Henrietta  Maria,  Charles  I 

135 


136      DOMESTIC   LIFE   IN  SCOTLAND 

forfeited  the  confidence  of  Presbyterian  Scot- 
land and  exposed  himself  to  much  jealous  and 
suspicious  misunderstanding  of  his  conduct  and 
motives.  It  was  his  misfortune  that  his  high 
conception  of  his  duties  and  prerogatives  as 
King  was  not  tempered  by  something  of  the 
watchful  caution  of  his  father,  and  something 
of  his  father's  instinct  for  studying  men  and 
waiting  for  the  opportune  moment.  Thus  the 
Act  of  Revocation — involving  most  of  the 
property  of  the  pre-Reformation  Church,  which 
had  been  distributed  by  James. VI  among  the 
nobles— drove  the  nobility  to  the  Presbyterian 
side,  undoing  at  a  blow  what  it  had  cost  James 
much  labour  and  ingenuity  to  accomplish.  The 
imposition  of  Laud's  Service  Book  by  authority 
of  King  Charles  immediately  called  forth  the 
National  league  and  Covenant,  a  protest  which 
was  enthusiastically  signed.  A  year  later  Sir 
Edward  Verney,  writing  home  from  the  English 
army  encamped  near  Berwick,  said,  "  Wee  find 
all  the  meaner  sort  of  men  nppon  the  Scotch 
Border  well  inclyned  to  the  King  .  .  .  but  the 
Gentlemen  are  all  Covenanters." 

As  soon,  however,  as  the  pacification  of 
Berwick  had  reinstated  Presbyterianism,  the 
Scottish  clergy  made  the  signature  of  the 
National  Covenant  compulsory,  thus  arrogat- 
ing to  themselves  the  right  to  dictate  the 
national  religion — the  very  right  which  they 


THE   KING   OR  THE  COVENANT     137 

had  denied  to  the  King.  It  was  not  long  before 
the  nobles  began  to  realise  how  little  their 
alliance  with  the  Presbyterian  ministers  was 
based  on  any  real  harmony  of  view  or  con- 
geniality of  feeling.  It  was  against  all  their 
traditions  to  submit  to  the  domination  of  men 
whose  origin  and  upbringing  inclined  them  to 
look  with  disfavour  on  habits,  recreations  and 
indeed  the  whole  scale  of  social  amenity  to 
which  the  upper  classes  had  always  been 
accustomed  ;  and  it  galled  them  to  be  dictated 
to  by  ministers  on  whom  they  looked  down  as 
social  inferiors.  The  result  was  a  revulsion 
against  the  system  set  up  by  the  Covenant  and 
an  inevitable  reaction  of  Royalist  sympathies, 
and  the  country  was  split  into  two  camps — a 
division  which  really  arose  not  from  mere  class 
feeling,  but  from  the  opposition  of  two  irrecon- 
cilable views  of  life.  For  the  student  of  the 
domestic  arts  the  evidences  of  this  divergence 
of  view  are  too  plain  to  be  passed  by. 

Much  as  Scotland  owes  to  the  Covenanters, 
for  their  contribution  to  Scottish  mind  and 
character  can  hardly  be  overestimated,  the 
religion  which  animated  them  was  of  a  singu- 
larly austere  and  forbidding  type.  Scores  of 
contemporary  diaries  have  familiarised  us  with 
its  solitary  and  introspective  character.  It  was 
the  fashion  of  the  time  to  keep  a  minute  record 
of  the  individual's  religious  experiences,  in 


138      DOMESTIC   LIFE   IN   SCOTLAND 

which  were  detailed  the  clouds  of  doubt  and 
distrust,  the  entanglements  of  temptation  and 
spiritual  "  discurradgement,"  the  covenants 
made,  broken  and  renewed,  the  darknesses  and 
self-abhorrences,  and  the  occasional  clearnesses, 
often  resulting  from  the  sudden  recollection  of 
some  appropriate  scriptural  text  from  which 
the  struggling  soul  "  gott  some  sweete  and 
comfortabl  disco verie  "  of  grace  ;  and  then  the 
frequent  reaction,  when  "  Satan  began  to 
whisper  in  my  minde,  oh  I  fear  this  will  be  lyke 
the  morning  cloud  and  the  earlie  dew,  that 
soon  passeth  away."  Even  a  schoolboy,  having 
been  "  intised  "  into  playing  games  upon  the 
"  saboth  day,"  writes,  "  I  fell  into  such  dread - 
full  terrors  that  was  insupportabl,  aprehending 
it  could  not  consist  with  the  justice  of  God  but 
that  the  earth  should  open  and  swallow  me  up 
to  hell  qwick."  It  was  an  unhappy  consequence 
of  the  current  interpretation  of  the  doctrine  of 
salvation  by  faith  and  not  by  works,  that  atten- 
tion was  focussed  on  states  or  "  frames  "  of 
mind,  as  if  these  were  in  themselves  more 
important  than  the  faithful  performance  of  the 
allotted  task. 

To  men  of  this  mould  every  natural  impulse 
was  apt  to  appear  as  a  snare  of  the  devil,  and 
every  event  of  life  as  merely  a  phase  of  the 
conflict  with  Apollyon.  Even  love-making  was 
no  idyllic  interlude.  Mr.  John  Livingstone  in 


THE  KING  OR  THE  COVENANT    139 

his  Memoirs  tells  us  how  a  marriage  was  "  pro- 
pounded "  to  him  by  a  third  party  with  the 
daughter  of  an  Edinburgh  merchant.  Pro- 
pounded !  The  very  word  might  dissipate  the 
rosiest  of  dreams  !  "I  had  seen  her  before 
several  times,"  he  says,  "  and  had  heard  the 
testimony  of  many  of  her  gracious  disposition, 
yet  I  was  for  nine  months  seeking,  as  I  could, 
direction  from  God  about  that  business  ; 
during  which  time  I  did  not  offer  to  speak  to 
her,  who,  I  believe,  had  not  heard  anything  of 
the  matter,  only  for  want  of  clearness  in  my 
mind,  although  I  was  twice  or  thrice  in  the 
house,  and  saw  her  frequently  at  communions 
and  public  meetings  ;  and  it  is  like  I  might 
have  been  longer  in  such  darkness  except  the 
Lord  had  presented  me  an  occasion  of  our  con- 
ferring together  ;  for  in  November,  1634,  when 
I  was  going  to  the  Friday  meeting  at  Ancrum,  I 
met  with  her  and  some  others  going  thither,  and 
propounded  to  them  by  the  way  to  confer  upon 
a  text  whereupon  I  was  to  preach  the  day  after 
at  Ancrum  ;  wherein  I  found  her  conference  so 
judicious  and  spiritual  that  I  took  that  for  some 
answer  to  my  prayer  to  have  my  mind  cleared, 
and  blamed  myself  that  I  had  not  before  taken 
occasion  to  confer  with  her.  Four  or  five  weeks 
later  I  propounded  the  matter  to  her  and 
desired  her  to  think  upon  it,  and  after  a  week 
or  two  I  went  to  her  mother's  house,  and  being 


140      DOMESTIC   LIFE   IN  SCOTLAND 

alone  with  her,  desiring  her  answer,  I  went  to 
prayer,  and  urged  her  to  pray,  which  at  last  she 
did  ;  and  in  that  time  I  got  abundance  of  clear- 
ness that  it  was  the  Lord's  mind  that  I  should 
marry  her,  and  then  propounded  the  matter 
more  fully  to  her  mother.  And  although  I  was 
fully  cleared,  I  may  truly  say  it  was  above  a 
month  before  I  got  marriage  affection  to  her, 
although  she  was  for  personal  endowment 
beyond  many  of  her  equals  ;  and  I  got  it  not 
till  I  had  obtained  it  by  prayer.  But  thereafter 
I  had  a  great  difficulty  to  moderate  it." 

This  is  one  way  of  love.  Let  us  not  judge 
too  harshly  the  pious  procrastinations  of  our 
Covenanting  Romeo.  The  course  of  true  love 
never  did  run  smooth.  And  the  story  of  Mr. 
Livingstone's  courtship,  with  its  reluctant  ad- 
vances, its  palsied  intermissions,  and  its  trium- 
phant and  indeed  somewhat  unbridled  close, 
serves  to  remind  us  once  more  that  "  stony 
limits  cannot  hold  love  out."  Keeping  before 
our  eyes  the  romantic  picture  of  the  two  on 
their  evening  walk  to  Ancrum,  and  overhearing 
in  fancy  their  Doric  accents  raised  in  exegetic 
heat  over  the  disembowelment  of  some  knotty 
text — culled,  it  may  be,  from  the  book  of 
Habakkuk — let  us  be  content  to  murmur  with 
the  poet : 

How  silver  sweet  sound  lovers'  tongues  by  night, 
Like  softest  music  to  attendant  ears  ! 


THE   KING   OR  THE   COVENANT     141 

And  now,  by  way  of  emphasising  Mr 
Livingstone's  psychology  by  contrast,  and 
because  it  is  well  to  study  the  spirit  of  one 
century  in  its  development  or  reaction  in  the 
next,  let  us  compare  his  narrative  with  an 
eighteenth-century  letter  from  a  lady  whose 
affections  have  been  touched.  "  Mr.  Shapely," 
she  writes,  "  is  the  prettiest  gentleman  about 
town.  He  is  very  tall,  but  not  too  tall  neither. 
He  dances  like  an  angel.  His  mouth  is  made, 
I  do  not  know  how,  but  it  is  the  prettiest  that 
I  ever  saw  in  my  life.  He  is  always  laughing, 
for  he  has  an  infinite  deal  of  wit.  If  you  did 
but  see  how  he  rolls  his  stockings  !  He  has  a 
thousand  pretty  fancies,  and  I  am  sure,  if  you 
saw  him,  you  would  like  him.  He  is  a  very 
good  scholar,  and  can  talk  Latin  as  fast  as 
English.  I  wish  you  could  but  see  him  dance  ! 
Now  you  must  understand  poor  Mr.  Shapely 
has  no  estate  ;  but  how  can  he  help  that,  you 
know  ?  And  yet  my  friends  are  so  unreasonable 
as  to  be  always  teasing  me  about  him  because 
he  has  no  estate.  ...  I  forgot  to  tell  you  that 
he  has  black  eyes,  and  looks  upon  me  now  and 
then  as  if  he  had  tears  in  them.  And  yet  my 
friends  are  so  unreasonable,  that  they  would 
have  me  be  uncivil  to  him  !  I  have  a  good  por- 
tion which  they  cannot  hinder  me  of  ...  but 
everyone  here  is  Mr.  Shapely's  enemy.  I 
desire  therefore  you  will  give  me  your  advice,  for 


142      DOMESTIC   LIFE   IN   SCOTLAND 

I  know  you  are  a  wise  man  ;  and  if  you  advise 
me  well,  I  am  resolved  to  follow  it.  I  heartily 
wish  you  could  see  him  dance,  and  am,  Sir, 
Your  most  humble  servant,  B.  D." 

This  is  another  way  of  love.  You  will  admit 
that  in  these  two  instances  the  mating  instinct 
operates  somewhat  diversely,  so  that  one  could 
hardly  have  suspected  that  the  seventeenth- 
century  minister  and  the  eighteenth-century 
belle  were  passing  through  the  same  crisis  of  the 
affections.  Each,  perhaps,  might  with  advan- 
tage have  learned  something  of  the  other.  Had 
the  young  lady  propounded  to  Mr.  Shapely  to 
confer  upon  a  portion  of  scripture,  with  a  view 
to  ascertaining  whether  his  conference  was 
judicious  and  spiritual,  she  might  have  dis- 
covered that  that  was  not  the  kind  of  portion 
that  most  appealed  to  him.  And  had  Mr. 
John  Livingstone,  without  the  long  months  of 
painful  propoundings,  admitted  into  his  lugu- 
brious bosom  so  much  natural  marriage  affec- 
tion for  the  lady  as  to  write,  "  Her  mouth  is 
made,  I  do  not  know  how,  but  it  is  the  prettiest 
that  I  ever  saw  in  my  life,"  I  do  not  think  that 
either  God  or  man  would  have  laid  it  too 
heavily  to  his  charge. 

But  I  quote  Mr.  Livingstone's  romance,  and 
contrast  it  with  the  engaging  foolishness  of  the 
later  specimen,  because  it  exemplifies  an  attitude 
of  mind  that  was  common  in  Scotland  and  else- 


THE   KING    OR  THE  COVENANT    143 

where  in  the  seventeenth  century.  Mr.  Living- 
stone represents  a  generation  to  whom  anything 
beyond  an  elementary  standard  of  domestic 
comfort  was  luxury  and  self-indulgence,  and 
any  regard  for  beauty  and  ornament  was  a 
concession  to  the  lust  of  the  eye  and  the  pride 
of  life.  Where  such  views  are  held  we  need  not 
look  for  any  development  of  the  artistic  aspect 
of  household  life.  Like  the  pilgrims  in  Bunyan's 
allegory,  the  Covenanters  "  set  very  light  by  all 
the  wares  of  the  merchandisers  ;  they  cared  not 
so  much  as  to  look  upon  them  ;  and  if  any 
called  upon  them  to  buy,  they  would  put  their 
ringers  in  their  ears  and  cry,  '  Turn  away  mine 
eyes  from  beholding  vanity.'  ' 

The  Puritan  spirit,  however,  was  not  the 
only  cause  which  operated  against  any  general 
diffusion  of  luxury  in  domestic  furnishing. 
In  1628  Scotland  was  bankrupt.  The  nobles, 
thanks  to  the  Act  of  Revocation,  had  their  own 
troubles.  Among  the  merchants  and  tradesmen 
there  were  many  whose  enterprise  and  industry 
had  amassed  considerable  fortunes,  but  Charles' 
repeated  attempts  at  legislation  against  usury 
made  it  difficult  for  such  men  to  invest  their 
means  profitably,  and  thus  deprived  Scottish 
trade  of  the  capital  necessary  to  its  expansion. 
Yet  progress  was  by  no  means  arrested.  As 
family  life  developed,  new  wants  began  to  dis- 
cover themselves  ;  and  this  and  the  introduction 


144      DOMESTIC   LIFE  IN   SCOTLAND 

of  new  materials  and  industries  brought  about 
changes  which,  though  small  in  themselves, 
had  a  gradual  and  cumulative  effect  in  enriching 
the  setting  of  domestic  life. 

About  1620,  for  instance,  English  tanners 
were  brought  into  Scotland  to  instruct  the 
native  tanners  in  "  the  true  and  perfect  form  of 
tanning."  Leather,  accordingly,  in  spite  of 
the  imposition  of  a  special  tax,  came  into  in- 
creased use  for  all  sorts  of  domestic  purposes. 
The  inventory  of  an  Edinburgh  wright  burgess, 
who  died  a  few  years  later,  includes  a  consider- 
able stock  of  leather  backs  for  chairs,  and  of  red 
skins  destined  no  doubt  for  the  same  purpose. 
At  Rusco  Tower  Lady  Lochinvar  had  "  six 
gilt  ledder  cuscheounes  "  ;  and  leather  was  also 
used  for  the  cases  in  which  knives  and  spoons, 
brushes  and  combs,  and  many  other  household 
goods  were  enclosed. 

Another  industry  which  took  root  in  Scotland 
at  the  same  time  was  glass  making.  A  small 
glass  works  was  set  going  by  Sir  George  Hay 
in  the  village  of  Wemyss,  and  after  some  ups 
and  downs  the  venture  proved  successful.  A 
Commission  appointed  by  the  Privy  Council 
examined  the  glass  and  reported  that  it  was 
fully  as  good  as  Danskine  glass,  though  its  thick- 
ness and  toughness  still  left  something  to  be 
desired .  A  conditional  protection  against  foreign 
competition  was  accordingly  granted,  and  to 


THE   KING   OR  THE   COVENANT     145 

prevent  the  native  manufacturer  from  taking 
unfair  advantage  of  his  monopoly  a  maximum 
price  for  "  braid  glas,"  meaning  sheet  glass,  was 
fixed  at  twelve  pounds  the  cradle.  Glass  had 
of  course  been  in  use  in  Scotland  long  before 
this.  St.  Margaret's  Chapel,  in  Edinburgh 
Castle,  had  glass  windows  in  1336  ;  and, 
among  secular  buildings,  the  palaces  of  Lin- 
lithgow  and  Falkland  had  their  windows  glazed 
in  the  year  1505.  By  the  time  with  which 
we  are  now  dealing  every  small  town  had  its 
"  glasenwricht  "  or  glazier.  As  to  glass  vessels 
James  IV  had  a  cupboard  of  these  in  1503,  and 
as  we  have  seen,  foreign-made  bottles  and 
drinking-glasses  had  come  into  fashion  in 
James  VFs  time.  But  it  is  only  after  the  setting 
up  of  the  glass  works  at  Wemyss  that  we  find 
table  glass  in  common  use  in  ordinary  houses, 
different  shapes  being  made  for  wine,  beer  and 
other  beverages.  Foreign  glass  of  course  also 
remained  in  use,  and  Lord  Melville  had  a 
cupboard  of  Venice  glass  valued  at  five  hundred 
pounds. 

Along  with  glass  we  may  note  the  gradual 
introduction  of  earthenware  dishes,  though 
whether  these  were  of  native  manufacture  is 
not  clear.  In  most  houses  tin  or  pewter  dishes 
continued  to  be  used,  while  here  and  there  the 
earlier  "  tree  "or  wooden  dishes  were  still 
employed.  Earthenware  dishes  had  been  im- 

IO 


146      DOMESTIC   LIFE  IN   SCOTLAND 

ported  from  Holland  by  Halyburton  in  the 
fifteenth  century,  but  it  is  not  till  Charles  Fs 
reign  that  we  find  frequent  reference  to  their 
domestic  use.  Though  subject  to  breakage 
they  had  the  advantage  of  being  cheaper  and 
more  easily  kept  clean  than  pewter,  and  as  they 
are  sometimes  described  as  painted  their  colour 
decoration  may  have  been  an  additional  attrac- 
tion. 

Earthenware  was  also  used  for  less  utilitarian 
purposes.  The  tradition  which  furnishes  the 
cottage  chimney-piece  with  highly  glazed  and 
boldly  coloured  dogs  or  human  figures  is  an 
ancient  one.  In  1562  there  was  among  the 
effects  of  Queen  Mary  "  ane  figure  of  ane  doig  " 
made  in  white  earthenware,  and  such  figures 
are  often  found  in  Charles  Fs  time.  It  is 
startling  at  first  sight  to  read  that  Mr.  John 
Bonyman,  dying  in  1631,  left  among  other 
things  "  thrie  lame  babies  and  three  lame 
doges,"  but  the  notion  that  his  house  offered 
hospitality  to  cripples  of  all  descriptions  may 
be  dismissed.  These  "  babies  "  were  merely 
small  figures  which,  like  the  dogs,  were  made 
of  "  lame,"  that  is  loam  or  earthenware. 

Another  influence  which  must  be  taken  into 
account  as  contributing  to  progress  in  house 
furnishing  was  the  increasing  familiarity  with 
English  standards  of  comfort  and  elegance.  It 
had  become  customary  for  the  well-to-do  to 


THE   KING   OR   THE   COVENANT    147 

send  to  London  for  their  furniture.  Thus  on 
his  daughter's  engagement  to  Lord  Cardross, 
Sir  Thomas  Hope,  the  Lord  Advocate,  who 
was  an  open  supporter  of  the  Covenant,  made 
a  "  nott  of  some  furnischings  to  be  coft  in 
London  and  sent  home."  He  estimated  the 
cost  at  two  hundred  pounds  sterling,  and  added, 
"  With  Godis  grace  I  sal  sie  the  samyn  thank- 
fullie  payit."  The  so-called  furnishings  in- 
cluded some  "  abillzeamentis  "  for  the  bride, 
for  fashions  in  dress  were  also  set  in  London. 
Many  a  gentlewoman  in  Scotland,  profoundly 
distrusting  local  standards  of  fashion,  must 
have  had  recourse  to  agonised  appeals  such  as 
that  addressed  by  one  of  their  English  provin- 
cial sisters  to  a  friend  in  London — "  I  pray  send 
me  word  if  wee  bottone  petticotes  and  wastcotes 
wheare  they  most  be  Botend." 

That  we  may  have  an  idea  of  the  actual 
arrangements  and  furnishing  of  the  time,  let  us 
examine  some  of  the  principal  rooms  of  the 
house  of  a  Scottish  nobleman  who  died  in  1643. 
The  house  may  be  taken  as  fairly  typical  of  its 
class,  and  it  is  interesting  because  it  illustrates 
the  transition  from  the  lingering  mediaeval 
tradition  to  a  still  immature  appreciation  of 
the  possibilities  of  family,  as  contrasted  with 
feudal,  life. 

Of  the  kitchen  we  need  only  remark  that  it  is 
on  the  ground  floor,  that  it  is  well  supplied  with 


148      DOMESTIC   LIFE   IN   SCOTLAND 

brazen  pots  and  pans  and  cooking  utensils  of 
all  kinds,  and  that  there  are  many  dozen  of  tin 
plates,  all  of  which  are  engraved  with  the  family 
arms.  No  seats  of  any  kind  are  provided  for  the 
servants'  use. 

We  may  also  pass  by  the  "  Gentlemen's 
chalmer,"  only  remarking,  as  to  the  significance 
of  the  name,  that  as  one  writer  puts  it  "  our 
nobility  must  needs  have  their  menials  gentle- 
manised,"  and  that  the  room  was  occupied  by 
menservants,  some  of  whom  slept  in  beds  and 
others  on  shake-downs  on  the  floor.  The 
application  of  the  word  "  gentleman  "  to  men- 
servants  is  not  an  exclusively  Scottish  use  ; 
but  the  English  traveller,  Christopher  Lowther, 
was  struck  in  1629  by  the  fact  that  Scottish 
gentlefolk  called  their  men  and  maids  Misters 
and  Mistresses.  Probably  the  Scottish  tendency 
to  greater  formality  in  forms  of  address  is  one 
of  the  traces  of  early  association  with  France. 

The  special  interest  of  the  house  begins  with 
the  "  Laiche  Hall."  In  the  mediaeval  house,  as 
we  have  seen,  the  hall  was  the  principal  apart- 
ment, and  it  was  always  on  the  first  floor.  But 
now  that  the  family  had  withdrawn  from  the 
hall  to  the  private  Dining-room  and  Drawing- 
room,  the  hall  lost  its  importance  and  was 
relegated  by  the  architects  of  the  time  to  the 
ground  floor,  which  was  associated  by  tradition 
with  the  cellars  and  vaults,  while  the  first  floor 


THE   KING   OR  THE   COVENANT     149 

was  reserved  for  the  more  modern  sitting- 
rooms  used  by  the  family.  The  Laiche  Hall, 
thus  banished,  still  bears  some  resemblance  to 
the  feudal  hall  of  earlier  days.  Its  walls  are 
covered  with  hangings,  it  is  furnished  with  an 
extending  table  surrounded  by  chairs  in  place 
of  the  older-fashioned  board  and  forms,  and 
there  is  a  large  fireplace  in  which  a  hospitable 
fire  might  still  blaze.  But  the  hangings  are 
worth  comparatively  little,  the  fine  arras  being 
reserved  for  the  rooms  upstairs  ;  the  chairs  are 
only  five  in  number,  showing  how  little  company 
the  old  hall  sees  in  its  declining  days  ;  and  the 
fireplace  is  unfurnished  save  for  a  pair  of  tongs. 
In  a  word,  the  hall  has  outlived  its  purpose  and 
is  already  half-way  towards  the  cheerless  no 
man's  land  that  it  has  become  in  the  modern 
house. 

Above  the  hall  is  the  modern  room  which 
has  supplanted  it — the  "  Dyneing  Room." 
Here  are  displayed  seven  pieces  of  arras 
hangings,  clothing  the  walls  with  rich  colour. 
Instead  of  the  mediaeval  board  there  are  five 
Spanish  tables,  besides  three  others  kept  in 
reserve  in  another  part  of  the  house.  These 
were  probably  of  uniform  size  so  that  any 
number  required  might  be  set  in  contact  to 
form  one  continuous  table,  either  straight  or 
with  rectangular  extensions.  In  the  room 
itself  there  are  seats  for  as  many  as  twenty-two 


150      DOMESTIC   LIFE  IN   SCOTLAND 

guests,  and  this  number  could  of  course  be 
supplemented  if  necessary.  All  of  these  seats 
were  covered  with  "  carpet,"  a  thick  woollen 
material .  Ten  of  them ,  having  backs ,  were  used 
for  the  more  important  guests,  while  the  re- 
mainder were  stools  or  tabourets.  The  win- 
dows had  striped  hangings  ;  there  was  a  long 
Persian  carpet  valued  at  five  hundred  merks, 
and  three  short  carpets  which  may  have  been 
used  as  table-covers.  At  the  fireside,  which 
was  furnished  with  shovel  and  tongs,  stood  two 
vessels  for  holding  coal.  These  were  made  of 
tin  and  were  valued  at  one  hundred  merks. 
f  It  will  be  noticed  that  neither  in  the  hall  nor 
in  the  dining-room  is  there  a  cupboard  or  dresser, 
nor  any  form  of  buffet  or  serving- table.  Yet 
in  the  pantry  we  shall  find  that  the  silver  for  the 
table  is  what  might  be  looked  for  in  a  house  of 
this  character.  There  are  two  silver  basins  and 
ewers,  each  set  weighing  12  Ib.  and  one  of  the 
sets  being  gilt  ;  two  great  gilt  and  chiselled 
silver  cups  with  covers  ;  tankards  and  tumblers 
of  silver;  a  great  silver  salt-fatt;  two  large 
silver  candlesticks,  two  dozen  silver  spoons, 
and  twelve  silver  dessert  dishes.  There  is  no 
mention  of  forks  except  that  there  is  a  case 
containing  eleven  knives  followed  by  an  entry 
of  "  ane  fork."  The  fact  that  the  fork  was  a 
single  one  shows  that  it  was  used  only  for 
serving  fruit  or  some  such  special  purpose. 


The  tumblers  mentioned  in  this  list  were 
tumblers  in  the  literal  and  original  sense  of  the 
word,  for  having  no  flat  base  they  would  not 
stand  upright  on  the  table,  but  had  to  be  emptied 
and  turned  upside  down.  They  are  spoken  of 
by  Samuel  Pepys  some  twenty  years  later,  and 
his  reference  to  them  is  the  earliest  known  to 
the  New  English  Dictionary. 

After  the  dining-room,  and  probably  com- 
municating with  it,  comes  the  drawing-room, 
one  of  the  earliest  instances  in  Scotland  of  a 
room  called  by  that  name.  We  are  so  familiar 
with  the  social  uses  of  the  drawing-room  in  our 
own  day  that  we  can  hardly  realise  the  vagueness 
with  which  people  in  the  first  half  of  the  seven- 
teenth century  were  feeling  for  a  type  of  room 
which  should  answer  the  scarcely  defined 
wants  of  their  social  life.  There  was  no  prece- 
dent, no  tradition  to  give  them  a  lead.  The 
room  was  one  to  withdraw  to  after  supper,  and 
in  it  the  dessert  was  no  doubt  eaten  ;  but  what 
were  the  occupations  or  amusements  with  a 
view  to  which  the  room  was  to  be  furnished  ? 
In  the  mediaeval  hall  there  had  been  musicians 
and  sometimes  visits  from  jugglers  and  other 
wandering  performers.  These,  however,  be- 
longed to  an  age  that  was  past,  and  the  family, 
thrown  on  its  own  resources,  had  to  devise  its 
own  methods  of  passing  the  time.  In  many 
households  this  would  present  no  difficulty,  but 


152      DOMESTIC   LIFE  IN  SCOTLAND 

there  are  also  people  who  have  little  initiative  in 
such  matters  and  who  find  themselves  at  a  loss 
unless  they  are  entertained  by  others.  The 
house  under  our  notice  shows  little  evidence  of 
any  organised  family  life.  The  drawing-room 
was  a  room  with  a  fireplace  and  two  turrets. 
In  each  of  these  turrets,  or  "  studies,"  as  they 
are  called,  there  was  a  carpet  stool  ;  in  the 
drawing-room  itself  there  were  only  a  set  of 
eight  chairs  with  padded  backs,  covered  with 
blue  and  red  satin  damask,  and  a  reposing  chair 
*'  conforme,"  or  en  suite.  There  is  no  table  of 
any  kind,  though  sometimes,  perhaps,  some  of 
the  Spanish  tables  in  the  dining-room  may 
be  brought  in  ;  no  cabinets  or  aumries  ;  no 
musical  instruments  nor  signs  of  chess,  back- 
gammon or  cards  ;  no  curtains,  blinds  nor 
carpet ;  still  less  are  there  books,  or  pictures,  or 
bowls  for  flowers,  or  a  clock.  Besides  the 
handsome  set  of  chairs  and  couch  there  is 
nothing  of  any  kind  whatever  save  a  shovel  and 
tongs  by  the  fireside,  and  one  other  article  so 
strangely  out  of  keeping  with  modern  ideas  of 
a  drawing-room  that  it  must  not  be  ignored — a 
chamber  pot. 

From  the  absence  of  comfortable  furnishings 
we  see  that  while  the  drawing-room  had  been 
adopted  as  a  new  and  fashionable  addition  to 
the  family  apartments,  many  a  Scottish  family 
had  some  difficulty  in  adapting  its  habits  to  the 


THE   KING   OR   THE   COVENANT    153 

use  of  such  a  room.  In  the  house  we  are 
examining  "  My  Lordis  bed  chamber  "  was 
supplied  with  a  "  wrytting  standard,"  and  he  no 
doubt  preferred  to  write  his  letters  there.  And 
it  is  probable  that  the  comparative  novelty  of 
private  bedrooms — each  with  its  separate  en- 
trance, instead  of  opening  off  one  another — 
through  which  other  persons  did  not  keep 
coming  and  going  on  their  way  to  their  own 
rooms,  tempted  inmates  of  the  house  to  neglect 
the  new  public  rooms  and  the  social  life  that 
ought  to  have  united  the  family  there. 

Of  course  ideas  of  furnishing  and  standards 
of  comfort  varied  very  widely  even  in  houses  of 
the  same  class.  Lord  Stormonth,  for  instance, 
who  died  in  1636,  had  in  his  house  many  of  the 
things  we  have  missed  in  the  cheerless  and 
scantily  furnished  drawing-room  that  has  been 
described.  Not  only  had  he  portraits  on  the 
walls,  but  he  cultivated  music,  for  there  was  a 
pair  of  organs  ;  and  we  find  also  needlework 
chairs  and  embroideries,  and  chess  and  back- 
gammon boards.  In  which  room  these  were 
kept,  however,  we  are  not  told,  so  we  can  draw 
no  inference  as  to  the  development  of  a  particu- 
lar type  of  room  corresponding  to  the  modern 
drawing-room. 

But  however  the  contents  of  Scottish  houses 
were  distributed  over  the  various  rooms — and 
early  inventories  seldom  give  this  information 


154      DOMESTIC  LIFE  IN  SCOTLAND 

— there  was  a  distinct  advance  in  the  richness 
and  variety  of  furnishing  and  ornaments.  In 
addition  to  the  Turkey  and  Persian  carpets 
that  have  already  been  mentioned  we  learn 
that  China  carpets  were  also  known  ;  and  as 
showing  the  wide  geographical  range  from 
which  the  wants  of  Scottish  homes  were  sup- 
plied, one  house  in  Aberdeen  had  Dutch  table- 
cloths, Venice  sponges,  Indian  saucers,  Musco- 
vite goblets  and  Turkish  turbans  !  This  may 
be  an  exceptional  instance,  due  perhaps  to  some 
member  of  the  household  having  followed  the 
sea  ;  but  foreign  ornaments  and  curiosities  were 
by  no  means  uncommon,  one  favourite  orna- 
ment being  what  were  called  "  Indana  noot- 
scheillis  " — in  other  words,  coco-nuts,  set  on  a 
silver  stem  and  lined,  or  at  least  lipped,  with 
silver. 

Among  the  changes  which  followed  from  the 
abandonment  of  the  hall  and  the  separation  of 
the  life  of  the  family  from  that  of  the  servants, 
was  the  introduction  of  the  domestic  handbell, 
which  now  became  necessary  to  summon  the 
servants  when  they  were  wanted.  It  was  not 
till  the  opening  years  of  the  eighteenth  century 
that  it  was  superseded  by  the  bell  hung  in  the 
kitchen  and  rung  by  wires  from  the  various 
rooms.  Another  sign  of  the  times  was  the 
introduction  of  the  basin-stand.  It  was  at 
first  used  only  in  the  hall  or  dining-room,  in 


THE   KING   OR  THE   COVENANT    155 

whichever  a  particular  family  might  dine,  and 
it  went  by  the  name  of  the  "  knaiff  "  or  knave. 
A  young  lad  had  hitherto  held  the  basin  in  which 
the  principal  persons  washed  their  hands  before 
a  meal,  but  the  new  tendencies  led  to  his  place 
being  taken  by  a  wooden  "  standard  "  or  stand, 
which  was  accordingly  called  after  him  on  the 
same  principle  as  that  on  which  we  call  a 
revolving  table  with  two  or  three  stages  a  "  dumb 
waiter,"  or  on  which  a  fireside  candlestick  is 
called  a  "  carle  "  or  a  "  peerman  "  in  various 
parts  of  Scotland.  These  alterations  in  the 
domestic  arrangements  also  gave  rise  to  a  new 
apartment  in  the  architecture  of  the  time,  known 
as  the  "  lettermeitt  house."  It  was  in  effect  a 
mess-room  for  men-at-arms  or  an  upper  ser- 
vants' hall,  and  it  derived  its  name  from  the 
fact  that  the  joints  at  the  family  meals  were  re- 
moved when  done  with  and  served  at  the  later- 
meat  house.  Inventories  show  that  the  linen 
for  the  lettermeitt  house  was  intermediate  in 
quality  between  the  linen  used  by  the  family  and 
that  thought  good  enough  for  the  kitchen. 

The  bedrooms  of  the  time  showed  a  consider- 
able advance  on  the  days  when  there  was  often 
little  furniture  beyond  the  bed  or  beds,  a  chest, 
and  sometimes  a  table  and  form  or  stool  ;  yet 
they  lacked  many  things  which  we  now  count 
elementary  necessities.  The  swinging  toilet 
mirror  not  yet  having  been  introduced,  the 


156      DOMESTIC  LIFE  IN  SCOTLAND 

dressing-table  as  we  know  it  did  not  exist, 
though  in  France  a  draped  table  with  brushes 
and  shaving  materials  is  shown  in  one  of 
Abraham  Bosse's  engravings,  and  a  framed 
mirror  was  often,  no  doubt,  propped  up  on  a 
table  by  the  window.  More  often  they  were 
hung  upon  the  wall,  or  only  a  hand-glass  was 
used.  Such  as  they  were  these  mirrors  no 
doubt  served  the  same  purpose  that  ours  do  to- 
day— to  gratify  a  woman's  longing  to  see  that 
everything  is  right,  and  relieve  a  man's  anxiety  to 
see  that  nothing  is  wrong.  Nothing  like  the 
modern  commodious  wardrobe  was  to  be  found, 
and  the  clothes  were  still  kept  in  a  chest,  in  the 
lower  part  of  which,  however,  were  now  some- 
times fitted  a  couple  of  "  shuttles  "  or  drawers. 
Neither  is  there  any  washstand,  and,  indeed,  if 
it  was  usual  to  wash  in  the  bedroom  at  all,  which 
it  probably  was  not,  a  basin  and  ewer  must  have 
been  brought  for  the  purpose  by  a  servant. 
Baths  are  never  mentioned,  and  when  these 
were  taken  it  was  in  a  large  tub  or  "  baith-fatt," 
with  which,  in  mediaeval  days,  a  canopy  had 
been  used  to  ensure  a  measure  of  privacy. 
Public  baths,  which  played  so  important  a  part 
in  foreign  town  life  in  the  fifteenth  century,  and 
which,  it  must  be  added,  generally  acquired  so 
doubtful  a  reputation,  do  not  seem  to  have 
existed  in  Scotland  till  early  in  the  second  half 
of  the  seventeenth  century,  when  there  were 


THE   KING   OR  THE   COVENANT     157 

"  bath  stoves  "  or  "  sweiting  balnes  "  in  Edin- 
burgh. 

But,  to  tell  the  plain  truth,  neither  in  Scotland 
nor  elsewhere  had  habits  of  personal  cleanliness 
yet  come  into  fashion.  It  is  probably  true  that, 
as  M.  Henri  Havard  suggests  in  his  book, 
L'art  et  le  Confort,  the  origin  of  the  fashion 
which  led  ladies  in  the  eighteenth  century  to 
receive  visitors  while  they  performed  their 
toilette,  was  an  ostentatious  pride  in  the  display 
of  standards  of  cleanliness  which  were  a  re- 
action against  the  slovenly  neglect  that  had 
hitherto  prevailed.  Washing,  so  far  from  being 
a  habit,  was  only  occasional,  though,  as  we  have 
seen,  the  hands  were  superficially  cleansed  at 
meals.  A  French  writer  on  manners  proposed 
what  was  no  doubt  considered  a  high  standard 
when  he  urged  his  readers  to  take  the  trouble  to 
wash  their  hands  every  day,  and  their  faces 
"  nearly  as  often  "  !  He  added  that  the  head 
too  should  sometimes  be  washed.  This  was  in 
Charles  Fs  time,  when  men  as  well  as  women 
wore  long  hair,  and  the  counsel  was  all  the  more 
necessary,  if  also  all  the  more  troublesome  to 
carry  out.  It  was,  in  fact,  the  increasing  desire 
for  cleanliness  that  eventually  led  to  the  adop- 
tion of  the  periwig. 

Another  advance  in  manners  was  the  use  of 
the  handkerchief,  which  however  was  still  by  no 
means  general.  Handkerchiefs  had  been  known 


158      DOMESTIC   LIFE   IN  SCOTLAND 

in  the  sixteenth  century,  but  Erasmus  enum- 
erates various  primitive  and  unseemly  expe- 
dients practised  by  his  contemporaries  in 
attending  to  what  we  may  delicately  call  nasal 
hygiene,  all  of  which  were  evidently  more 
usual  than  the  use  of  the  handkerchief.  Another 
writer  some  years  later,  giving  rules  for  elegant 
deportment  in  society,  says  that  if  in  blowing 
your  nose  you  use  a  handkerchief  "  you  will 
earn  great  praise  "  !  One  of  Abraham  Bosse's 
engravings  shows  a  seventeenth-century  interior 
in  which  a  lady  uses  a  handkerchief,  and  in 
doing  so  she  turns  her  head  away  from  the 
company — a  rule  of  politeness  dating  from  the 
days  when  handkerchiefs  were  not  in  use. 

The  bedrooms ,  however ,  were  pleasant  enough 
rooms.  In  ordinary  houses  the  walls  were 
painted  or  whitewashed,  the  mean  if  convenient 
practice  of  using  wall-papers  not  having  been 
introduced  till  after  1800,  when  "  China  papers  " 
began  to  come  into  fashion.  In  more  elegantly 
furnished  houses  there  would  be  hangings  of 
camlet  or  of  arras,  while  occasionally,  as  in 
Lady  Melville's  bedchamber  at  Monymaill, 
the  walls  were  hung  with  stamped  and  gilded 
leather.  The  furniture  generally  consisted  of 
a  chair  and  stools  covered  with  stuff  to  match 
the  bed-curtains,  and  a  table  covered  with  the 
same  material.  The  whole  suite  thus  made  up 
was  considered  as  going  with,  and  forming 


THE   KING   OR  THE   COVENANT    159 

part  of  the  equipment  of,  the  bed.  Beyond  the 
chest  and  mirror  already  mentioned  and  some- 
times a  shelved  aumrie  or  press,  there  was 
little  else  but  the  candlesticks. 

The  principal  piece  of  furniture  was  of 
course  the  bed  itself,  and  it  may  be  worth  while 
to  cast  back  and  review  the  development  of 
beds,  and  especially  of  some  of  the  varieties 
that  were  characteristic  of  Scotland. 

George  Buchanan,  writing  of  the  hardy  habits 
of  the  Highlanders,  says,  "  In  their  houses  also 
they  lie  upon  the  ground,  strewing  fern  or 
heath  upon  the  floor  with  the  roots  downward, 
and  the  leaves  turned  up."  And  he  adds  that 
they  had  the  greatest  contempt  for  pillows  and 
blankets.  In  early  times  it  was  very  much  in 
this  fashion  that  the  retainers  in  Scottish 
castles  passed  the  night  in  the  hall,  making 
themselves  as  comfortable  as  they  could  on 
straw  or  heather,  or,  as  civilisation  advanced, 
on  sacks  or  rude  mattresses  rilled  with  flock, 
and  known  as  "  knop  seks."  Before  the  end  of 
the  fifteenth  century  stand  beds,  which  were 
beds  raised  from  the  floor  on  "  stoups  "  or  legs, 
were  used  by  all  the  more  important  persons  in 
the  household.  There  were  various  forms  of 
stand  beds.  The  "  strek  "  bed  seems  to  have 
been  one  in  which  the  mattress  was  laid  on 
stretched  supports  instead  of  on  boards.  The 
"  letacamp  "  or  camp  bed  (lit  de  camp),  some- 


160      DOMESTIC   LIFE   IN   SCOTLAND 

times  amusingly  perverted  into  "  litigant,"  was 
originally  a  folding  bed  suitable  for  carrying  on 
a  journey,  and  we  read  in  the  Lord  High 
Treasurer's  Accounts  for  1489  of  "  tursing  (i.e. 
packing  and  transporting)  the  kingis  letacamp 
bed  to  Dunbertane."  Such  beds  were  often 
fitted  with  a  portable  canopy,  so  that  the 
traveller,  even  if  the  bed  had  to  be  set  up  for 
the  night  in  squalid  surroundings,  might  have 
his  own  seemly  hangings  round  him.  When  a 
nobleman  with  his  family  and  retinue  went 
from  one  of  his  country  seats  to  another,  all  the 
necessary  furniture,  including  tapestries,  beds, 
and  sometimes  even  the  windows  and  doors, 
was  carried  with  them.  When  the  Percy  family 
in  England  travelled  there  was  an  order  that  one 
bed  must  serve  for  every  two  priests  or  gentle- 
men, and  one  for  every  three  children.  In 
Scottish  houses  the  stand  beds  had  a  covering 
of  serge,  kersey  or  arras,  and  they  were  fitted 
with  blankets  and  sheets  as  well  as  bolsters 
and  pillows  with  the  necessary  "  codware  "  or 
pillow  covers.  The  use  of  a  "  rufe,"  or  canopy, 
with  curtains  was  very  common,  but  it  was 
suspended  from  the  ceiling  and  did  not  form 
part  of  the  bed.  The  four-poster,  in  which  the 
canopy  is  supported  on  the  posts,  first  appears 
in  the  list  of  beds  belonging  to  James  V  in  1539. 
This  is  the  most  important  type,  and  we  shall 
return  to  it  after  describing  some  other  varieties. 


THE   KING   OR  THE   COVENANT    161 

The  introduction  of  "  kaissit  "  beds,  in  which 
wooden  boarding  or  panelling  took  the  place  of 
hanging  drapery,  is  only  a  phase  of  the  move- 
ment which  brought  panelled  walls  into  fashion 
instead  of  tapestry.  Among  the  "  insicht  geir  " 
in  Dumbarton  Castle  in  1580  was  a  "  stand  bed 
of  eastland  timmer  with  ruf  and  pannell  of  the 
same,"  the  pannel,  or  pane,  being  the  vertical 
part  rising  from  behind  the  pillow  to  the  back 
of  the  canopy.  But  thirty  years  earlier  Laurence 
Murray,  of  Tullibardine,  had  left  among  his 
effects  "  twa  clois  beddis."  These  were  the 
characteristic  box  beds,  known  also  as  "  buis- 
ties  "  or  "  boushties,"  still  to  be  found  in  many 
a  cottage.  Their  use  was  noted  by  Fynes 
Moryson,  the  English  traveller,  who,  being  in 
Scotland  "  upon  occasion  of  businesse  "  in 
1598,  thus  described  them  :  "  Their  bedsteads 
were  then  like  Cubbards  in  the  wall,  with  doors 
to  be  opened  and  shut  at  pleasure  so  as  we 
climbed  up  to  our  beds.  They  use  but  one 
sheete,  open  at  the  sides  and  top,  but  close  at 
the  feete,  and  so  doubled."  The  enclosing  of 
the  bed  with  wooden  doors  or  sliding  panels 
was  the  outcome  of  the  contemporary  desire 
for  "  close  "  rooms.  Tapestried  chambers  were 
too  often  draughty  and  uncomfortable  and  our 
forefathers'  ambition  was  to  have  their  rooms 
air-tight  so  as  to  exclude  draughts.  The  dis- 
comforts of  closeness,  in  the  modern  sense  of 
ii 


162      DOMESTIC   LIFE   IN   SCOTLAND 

exhausted  and  vitiated  air,  had  still  to  be  dis- 
covered, and  the  early  box  beds,  which  excluded 
light  and  air,  were  no  doubt  considered  in  their 
day  the  last  word  in  luxury.  Early  in  the  seven- 
teenth century  Gordon,  of  Abergeldie,  had  "  ane 
clos  kaissit  bed,  lokkit  and  bandit  "  in  which 
we  may  assume  that  he  slept  secure  not  only 
from  the  intrusions  of  man,  but  also  from  the 
insidious  encroachments  of  ventilation.  Such 
beds  were  often  provided  with  a  bed-staff, 
which  Johnson's  Dictionary  erroneously  defines 
as  "  a  pin  to  keep  the  clothes  from  slipping." 
In  Satan's  Invisible  World  Discovered  there  is  a 
tale  of  a  ghostly  visitant  in  which  this  incident 
is  related  :  "  The  night  after,  it  (the  apparition) 
came  panting  like  a  dog  out  of  breath  ;  upon 
which  one  took  up  a  bed-staff  to  knock,  which 
was  caught  out  of  her  hand  and  thrown  away." 
This  is  the  only  literary  reference  to  the  use  of 
the  bed-staff  which  I  know.  No  doubt  the  bed- 
staff  was  so  used  to  knock  with  when  there  were 
no  bells  to  call  attendants,  but  its  characteristic 
use  was  in  arranging  the  bedclothes  on  a  bed 
which  was  only  accessible  from  one  side — 
spreading  them  smooth  and  tucking  them  in  on 
the  further  side.  For  this  purpose  it  is  still  in 
use  in  Fife  and  elsewhere. 

Probably  the  "  bureau  "  bed,  used  in  the 
eighteenth  century,  was  a  descendant  of  the 
box  bed.  It  was  made  to  fold  back  during  the 


THE   KING   OR  THE   COVENANT    163 

day  on  a  hinge  near  the  floor  into  a  niche  in  the 
wall. 

The  white- washed  wall,  the  nicely  sanded  floor, 
The  varnished  clock  that  click'd  behind  the  door  ; 
The  chest,  contrived  a  double  debt  to  pay, 
A  bed  by  night,  a  chest  of  drawers  by  day. 

So  Goldsmith  describes  it,  and  in  many 
houses  designed  by  the  brothers  Adam  it  was 
used  to  economise  space  in  the  servants' 
quarters. 

One  other  form  of  bed  worth  mentioning  is 
the  truckle  bed.  Truckle  beds  were  employed 
at  Magdalen  College,  Oxford,  in  1459,  but  they 
seem  only  to  have  come  into  use  in  Scotland  in 
the  sixteenth  century.  A  personal  servant  was 
thus  enabled  to  sleep  in  his  master's  room  on  a 
bed  which  by  day  was  run  under  the  standing 
bed  on  which  his  master  slept.  In  1566  the 
"  Wyide  Chalmer,"  of  Calder  House,  had  "  ane 
turnit  bed  with  ane  draw  bed  under  of  plane 
tre,"  while  in  another  room  there  was  what  is 
described  as  "  ane  laych  rynnand  (low  running) 
bed  " — another  name  for  the  same  thing.  It 
was  this  arrangement,  whereby  the  master  slept 
on  a  higher  level  than  his  servant,  which  misled 
the  Scottish  Laird  who,  arriving  at  an  English 
inn  with  his  servant,  was  given  a  room  with  a 
four-poster.  ;<  Such  furniture  being  new  to  the 
Highlanders  " — I  quote  from  an  old  chapbook 
— "  they  mistook  the  four-posted  pavillion  for 


164      DOMESTIC   LIFE   IN   SCOTLAND 

the  two  beds,  and  the  Laird  mounted  the  tester 
while  the  man  occupied  the  comfortable  lodging 
below.  Finding  himself  wretchedly  cold  in  the 
night,  the  Laird  called  to  Donald  to  know  how 
he  was  accommodated.  '  Ne'er  sae  weel  a'  my 
life,'  quothe  the  ghilly.  '  Ha,  man,'  exclaimed 
the  Laird,  '  if  it  wasna  for  the  honour  of  the 
thing  I  could  find  it  in  my  heart  to  come  doun.' ' 
Such  pretentious  furniture  was  not  to  be  found 
in  Scottish  inns,  where  the  accommodation  was 
of  the  most  primitive  kind,  and  there  was,  as  a 
Scottish  traveller  remarked  on  returning  north 
of  the  Tweed,  "  a  sensible  decay  of  service  by 
that  a  man  has  in  England."  But  it  must  be 
borne  in  mind  that  the  upper  classes  in  Scotland 
did  not  make  use  of  the  inns,  being  usually  able 
to  count  on  the  hospitality  of  persons  of  their 
own  rank.  The  inns,  therefore,  laying  them- 
selves out  for  a  lower  class  of  visitor,  did  not 
make  a  favourable  impression  on  travellers  in 
Scotland.  One  complains  that  "  the  bottom  of 
my  bed  was  loose  boards,  one  laid  over  another, 
and  a  thin  bed  upon  it  "  ;  while  another  speaks 
of  "  mean  beds  where  we  might  have  rested  had 
the  mice  not  randezvoused  over  our  faces." 

In  private  houses,  however,  the  four-poster 
soon  established  itself,  and  the  royal  inventories 
show  us  that  such  beds  were  richly  decorated 
and  must  have  given  an  imposing  air  to  the 
rooms  in  which  they  were  placed.  One  of  those 


THE   KING   OR  THE   COVENANT    165 

belonging  to  James  V  was  hung  with  purple 
velvet  with  fringes  and  tassels  of  silver  ;  others 
were  draped  in  crimson  or  equally  rich  colours, 
while  it  was  not  unusual  to  employ  "  variant," 
or  shot  silk,  whose  play  of  colour  must  have 
produced  effects  of  great  splendour.  Various 
kinds  of  decoration  were  made  use  of  in  orna- 
menting the  royal  beds.  Some  were  "  pas- 
mentit,"  that  is,  enriched  by  the  application  of 
gold  and  silver  lace,  while  needlework  and 
embroidery  were  also  employed.  Thus  another 
of  James  V's  beds  had  a  "  rufe  with  ane  heid  and 
overfrontale  of  cramosy  velvott,  with  the  storie 
of  the  life  of  man  upoune  the  samune,  comparit 
to  a  hart,  all  in  raisit  wark  in  gold,  silver  and 
silk."  In  Queen  Mary's  time  the  royal  beds 
were  even  more  elaborate,  and  in  their  decora- 
tion embroidery  and  needlework  were  carried 
to  a  high  pitch.  One  comparatively  plain  bed 
among  them  is  of  some  historical  interest.  It  is 
described  as  "  of  violett  broun  veluot,  pasmentit 
with  a  pasment  made  of  gold  and  silver,  fur- 
nished with  ruif,  headpiece  and  pandis,"  and  it 
had  curtains  of  violet  damask.  It  was  in  this 
bed,  given  by  the  Queen  to  Darnley  in  August, 
1566,  that  Darnley  was  asleep  in  his  lodging  in 
the  Kirk  o'  Field  when  the  explosion  took  place 
which  caused  his  death.  So  much  violence  and 
tragedy  is  covered  by  the  terse  note  in  the  in- 
ventory "  the  said  bed  was  tint  in  the  Kingis 


166      DOMESTIC  LIFE  IN  SCOTLAND 

ludgeing."  Even  what  are  inventoried  as  "  plane 
beddis  not  enrichit  with  onything  "  were  some- 
times rather  gay  for  modern  standards  of  taste. 
One,  for  example,  was  "  of  veluot,  reid  yallow 
and  blew "  with  "  thrie  curtenis  of  dames 
(damask)  of  the  same  cullouris  unfreinyett  " 
(unfringed) — as  though  the  shy  god  of  sleep 
were  to  be  caught  lurking  in  the  rainbow  ! 

Among  the  State  Papers  relating  to  Queen 
Mary  is  one  (No.  408)  dated  October,  1587, 
giving  a  list  of  "  Devices  on  the  Queen  of  Scots 
Bed."  About  fifty  of  these  allegorical  devices 
are  described.  In  the  description  of  them  there 
are  several  references  to  colour.  It  is  possible, 
of  course,  that  the  devices  may  have  been  carved 
on  the  wood  of  the  bed,  and  then  heightened 
with  colour  and  gilded.  But  it  is  much  more 
probable,  and  quite  in  accordance  with  the  usage 
of  the  time,  that  the  so-called  bed  is  really  a  bed- 
cover, probably  the  same  as  that  referred  to  in 
the  inventory  of  articles  left  in  possession  of 
"  Andrew  Melvin,  gent  "  (State  Papers,  No. 
292),  and  there  described  as  "  Furniture  for  a 
bed,  wroughte  with  needle  woorke  of  silke,  silver 
and  gold,  with  divers  devices  and  armes,  not 
throughlie  finished."  Many  of  the  devices  and 
mottoes  are  philosophical  reflections  on  the 
fateful  circumstances  of  Mary's  life.  One 
represents  "  A  Lioness  and  her  little  cub  near 
to  her  "  with  the  motto,  "  Unum  quidem,  sed 


THE   KING   OR  THE  COVENANT    167 

leonem."  Another  shows  "  A  dove  in  a  cage, 
and  an  eagle  above  ready  to  devour  her  when 
she  shall  come  forth,"  with  the  motto  in  Italian, 
"  I  am  in  evil  plight,  but  I  fear  worse."  A  third 
consists  of  "  Two  crowns  on  earth  and  one  in 
heaven,  composed  of  stars  with  flames  of  fire 
issuing  from  them,"  and  the  motto,  "  Manet 
ultima  coelo." 

One  characteristic  custom  of  the  time  was  the 
use  of  mourning  beds  draped  in  black.  The 
statement  is  constantly  repeated  that  mourning 
was  unknown  in  Scotland  till  the  death  of  Queen 
Magdalen  in  1537,  the  authority  of  George 
Buchanan  having  been  accepted  without  ques- 
tion. So  far  as  it  applies  to  public  mourning 
the  statement  may  be  correct.  An  order  sub- 
scribed by  the  King  was  inserted  in  the  books  of 
the  Edinburgh  Town  Council  in  July,  1537  (the 
date  of  the  Queen's  death),  which,  without  ex- 
press reference  to  that  event,  says,  "  The  lords 
understandis  that  the  Kingis  grace  and  all  the 
lieges  of  his  realm  hes  instantly  ado  with  blak 
veluott,  satyne,  dammes  and  all  sorts  of  blak 
clayth  ..."  and  goes  on  to  forbid  raising  the 
price.  But  private  mourning  was  worn  long 
before  this.  It  is  mentioned  in  Dunbar's  poem 
of  the  "  Wedow,"  which  was  in  print  by  1508. 
This  lady  describes  how  she  goes  to  the  kirk 
"  cled  in  cairweeds,"  talks  of  her  "  dule  habits," 
and  tells  us  that  her  "  clokkis  thai  are  cairful 


168      DOMESTIC   LIFE   IN   SCOTLAND 

(sorrowful)  in  colour  of  sable,"  and  such  allu- 
sions entitle  us  to  assume  that  mourning  was 
by  that  time  a  well-established  custom.  The 
bed  which  appears  among  the  possessions  of 
James  V  in  1542,  and  which  was  hung  in  black 
!<  dalmes  "  (damask),  was  probably  so  draped 
in  sorrow  for  the  death  of  his  French  bride. 
At  any  rate,  it  was  not  unusual,  as  the  sixteenth 
century  went  on,  for  well-to-do  families  to  have 
a  special  bed  for  use  in  times  of  mourning,  or  at 
least  a  complete  set  of  black  hangings.  The 
same  practice  ruled  in  England.  In  the  Verney 
Memoirs  (Vol.  I,  p.  293)  Sir  Ralph  Verney 
writes  to  a  relative  who  has  announced  the  death 
of  her  husband,  and  suggests  lending  her  "  the 
great  black  bed  and  hangings  from  Claydon  " 
as  the  only  consolation  he  can  offer  ;  and  it 
seems  to  have  been  customary  to  send  this  bed 
round  to  any  branch  of  the  family  which  had  to 
go  into  mourning.  In  Queen  Mary's  inven- 
tories we  find  three  such  beds,  two  of  velvet  and 
one  of  damask,  entirely  in  black,  with  black  silk 
fringes.  In  1594  the  Laird  of  Caddalis  had  two 
of  these  funereal  beds,  draped  in  black  velvet 
with  black  taffeta  curtains  ;  and  when  we 
examine  the  wearing  apparel  in  his  house  we 
find  fresh  evidence  of  a  period  of  mourning. 
There  are  black  velvet  "  cornettis,"  which  are 
the  well-known  head-dresses  shaped  like  two 
horns,  worn  by  women  ;  three  "  blak  mwchis 


THE   KING   OR  THE   COVENANT    169 

of  talphetie  "  ;  and,  most  unmistakable  of  all, 
"  ane  braid  craip  for  the  duill."  As  time  went 
on  our  forefathers  gloried  in  multiplying  and 
extending  the  visible  signs  of  grief.  On  the 
death  of  the  Earl  of  Haddington,  in  1643,  his 
chamber  was  "  hung  with  mourneing  "  ;  and 
five  years  later  there  were  not  only  a  "  black 
cloath  "  bed,  with  tester,  valance  and  curtains, 
and  chair  and  stool  covers  to  correspond ,.  but 
also  black  baize  hangings  for  the  rooms,  black 
covers  for  the  forms  and  other  seats,  and  black 
horse-cloths  and  liveries.  Nothing  was  left  un- 
done to  emphasise  the  most  dismal  aspects  of 
death  and  to  aggravate  the  depressing  circum- 
stances of  the  bereaved.  It  is  even  said  that 
the  mistress  of  Brunston  had  a  particular  alley 
in  her  garden  which  she  set  aside  for  walking  in 
during  mourning. 

The  furnishing  of  a  four-poster  in  Queen 
Mary's  time  consisted  of  (i)  the  covering,  or 
bed-cover  ;  (2)  the  headpiece  or  pane,  rising 
from  the  head  of  the  bed  ;  (3)  the  roof  or 
canopy  ;  (4)  three  pands,  forming  the  valance 
or  frieze-like  hanging  at  the  top  of  the  curtains  ; 
(5)  the  curtains  ;  (6)  the  stoup-covers,  the 
material  fitted  round  the  bedposts,  usually 
wound  spirally  ;  and  (7)  the  underpands  or 
"  subbasmont,"  hanging  from  the  bed  to  the 
floor.  The  top  of  the  bed  was  often  decorated 
with  "  standardts  of  fedderis  "  at  the  four 


170      DOMESTIC  LIFE  IN  SCOTLAND 

corners,  while  in  1634  a  citizen  of  Aberdeen  had 
his  bed  similarly  surmounted  with  no  fewer 
than  six  tin  crowns  !  As  to  curtains,  there  is  a 
set  at  present  on  view  at  the  Royal  Scottish 
Museum,  on  loan  from  Sir  Charles  Bruce,  of 
Arnot,  which  are  believed  to  have  been  hung 
on  Queen  Mary's  bed  during  her  imprisonment 
at  Lochleven.1  They  are  certainly  of  that  date 
and  they  have  many  points  of  interest.  They 
are  of  crimson  cloth  divided  by  broad  bands  of 
applique  velvet  embroidered  in  gold  and  colours. 
The  curtains  are  four  in  number,  besides  the 
valances.  When  they  came  to  the  Museum 
they  were  measured,  and  it  was  found  that 
while  the  height  was  approximately  uniform — 
about  6  ft. — the  width  of  the  separate  pieces 
was  remarkably  different,  one  being  44  in.  wide, 
one  58  in.,  one  79  in.,  and  the  last  as  much  as 
99  in.  Curtains  are  of  course  meant  to  hang 
with  a  certain  amount  of  fullness,  so  they  need 
not  be  expected  to  correspond  precisely  to  the 
measurements  of  the  bed.  The  proper  arrange- 
ment seems  to  be  this  :  the  58  in.  one  is  the 
head-piece  ;  the  shortest  of  all,  that  measuring 
44  in.,  hangs  next  to  the  head  on  the  side  on 
which  the  bed  was  entered  ;  the  79  in.  one 
hangs  along  the  whole  of  the  opposite  side  of 
the  bed  ;  and  the  99  in.  one  extends  from  that 
side  along  the  foot  of  the  bed  and  up  the  other 
side  till  it  meets  the  short  one,  the  meeting-place 
1  See  Plate  XII. 


PLATE  XI T 


BED-CURTAINS    FROM    LOCH    LEVEN 
Property  of  Sir  Charles  Rruceof  Arnot 


THE  KING  OR  THE  COVENANT    171 

occurring  just  where  it  would  be  most  con- 
venient that  there  should  be  an  opening  for 
entering  and  leaving  the  bed.  When  the  cur- 
tains at  the  Museum  were  arranged  in  this  way 
it  was  found  that  the  edges  of  the  curtains  at 
this  opening  were  worn — perhaps  by  Queen 
Mary's  own  hand  as  she  drew  them  back  to  face 
each  new  morning  of  her  capitivity.  The  cur- 
tains show  a  characteristic  feature  of  the  beds 
of  the  time,  the  strings  and  "  knoppis  "  for 
tying  the  curtains  from  inside  before  going  to 
sleep. 

Heraldic  ornament  was  often  applied  to  beds, 
either  in  the  form  of  wood-carving,  or  executed 
in  needlework  on  the  valance,  head  or  coverlet. 
But  its  appearance  in  private  houses  is  rare 
before  the  seventeenth  century.  David  Wedder- 
burn,  the  Dundee  merchant,  speaks,  in  1622,  of 
"  ane  lite  camp  bed  with  my  father  and  motheris 
airmes  thairon."  Sir  Colin  Campbell,  the 
eighth  Laird  of  Glenurquhy,  who  had  a  taste 
for  magnificence  in  furnishing,  had  one  silk  bed 
with  red  hangings,  "  ane  pand  with  rid  velvett 
brouderit  with  blew  silk,  with  the  Laird  of 
Glenurquhy  and  his  Ladie  their  names  and 
airmes  thairon."  And  other  beds,  one  of  blue, 
one  "  incarnatt,"  and  one  of  shot  green  and 
yellow,  similarly  bore  the  arms  of  the  laird  and 
his  lady.  The  taste  of  the  time  seems  to  have 
favoured  such  bright  colours  as  these,  and  an 


172      DOMESTIC   LIFE   IN   SCOTLAND 

inventory  of  1622  permits  us  a  chaste  glimpse 
of  Mr.  Adam  Primrose,  a  native  of  Culross, 
retiring  to  his  slumbers  under  the  glowing  shade 
of  "  orang  growgrane  courtenis."  But,  whether 
as  a  result  of  Puritan  influence  or  no,  these 
cheerful  hues  soon  began  to  lose  favour,  and 
such  romantic  colour-names  as  crammasie  and 
color-de-roy  passed  out  of  fashion.  In  their 
place  we  have  a  number  of  unpleasant  names 
like  "  hair-cullour  "  and  "  flesche  collor,"  and 
depressing  ones  like  "  sadd  cullor  "  and  "  lead 
colour  "  ;  while  there  are  also  names,  more 
attractive  in  themselves,  which  none  the  less 
stand  for  dull  and  neutral  shades  of  various 
kinds,  such  as  "  gridaline  "  (gris  de  //«),  a  pinkish 
grey  ;  "  gingalyne,"  ginger  coloured  ;  and  the 
pretty  name  "  philiamort  "  (feuille  mort)  or  dead 
leaf  colour.  Such  colours  taken  as  representa- 
tive of  the  time  convey  an  impression  of  an  age 
which  has  lost  much  of  the  gaiety  and  romance 
of  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries.  Yet 
on  similar  evidence  what  judgment  would  the 
archaeologists  of  the  future  pass  on  our  own 
time,  for  if  we  may  trust  the  advertisements  in 
to-day's  papers  the  palette  of  the  twentieth  cen- 
tury would  appear  to  be  laid  in  with  such 
mysterious  shades  as  "  nigger,  putty,  jade, 
bottle,  tango  and  saxe  "  ? 


LECTURE  VI 

THE  COMMONWEALTH  AND   THE 
RESTORATION 

1649-1688 

The  restoration  of  the  Monarchy — Irreconcilable  differ- 
ences— Organised  and  harmonious  national  life  impossible — 
Persecutions — The  Acts  of  Indulgence — Inducements  to 
accept  the  established  regime — History  of  the  times  re- 
flected in  furniture — Severe  and  utilitarian  character  of 
Commonwealth  furniture — Restoration  chairs  and  day- 
beds — Chairs  as  evidences  of  changes  in  the  treatment  of 
floors — Easy  chairs — Extravagance  of  the  Court — Exotic 
materials — Cabinets — The  chest  of  drawers — Tea,  coffee 
and  cocoa — Walnut  tables — The  virginalls — Barred  grates — 
Forks  not  yet  in  use — Scottish  diarists — Social  life  of  the 
time — Billiards — Horse  racing — The  kirk  stool — Going  to 
church — Giving  out  the  line — The  hour-glass — Periwigs, 
powder  and  Sedan  chairs,  as  preluding  the  eighteenth- 
century — Conclusion . 

THE  tragic  course  of  Scottish  history 
under  the  later  Stuart  kings  resulted 
from  the  irreconcilable  antagonism  of 
two  ideas,  each  entertained  as  a  principle  abso- 
lute and  admitting  of  no  compromise.  On  the 
one  side,  the  people,  with  every  fibre  hardened 
in  its  long  struggle  for  religious  liberty,  held  un- 
flinchingly to  the  divine  right  of  conscience. 
On  the  other,  the  Royalists  asserted  no  less 
peremptorily  the  divine  right  of  Kings.  The 
people's  claim  meant  in  practice  the  divine 

173 


174      DOMESTIC   LIFE   IN   SCOTLAND 

authority  of  the  Presbyterian  form  of  religion. 
And  as  the  King,  in  his  capacity  as  Heaven's 
vice-regent,  claimed  the  right  to  impose  what- 
ever form  of  religion  commended  itself  to  him, 
and  as  that  form  was  not  Presbyterianism,  there 
was  no  possibility  of  a  compromise  such  as 
might  have  led  to  a  peaceful  and  harmoniously 
organised  national  life.  For  eleven  years  under 
the  Commonwealth  and  Protectorate,  Scotland 
had  experienced,  for  the  first  time  in  her  history, 
the  domination  of  a  foreign  government  whose 
rule  was  orderly  and  not  unjust,  but  which  was 
yet  in  many  respects  uncongenial.  And  when, 
in  1660,  Charles  II  was  restored  to  the  throne, 
there  were  many  whose  experience  of  the  form 
of  government  set  up  by  the  Covenant  led  them 
to  accept  with  relief  the  return  of  the  monarchy, 
and  who  looked  hopefully  forward  to  happier 
times  under  the  ancient  line  of  Scottish  kings. 
But  it  soon  appeared  that  the  old  antagon- 
ism was  to  find  no  pacific  solution,  and  that  the 
policy  of  the  King  and  his  advisers  aimed  at 
nothing  less  than  the  total  extirpation  of  the 
Covenant,  a  policy  which  would  have  been  im- 
practicable had  not  the  nobility  turned  Royalist 
and  had  not  the  Covenanters  themselves  been 
divided  by  internal  differences.  The  Recissory 
Act  cancelled  everything  in  the  way  of  legisla- 
tion that  the  Covenant  had  accomplished,  and 
Presbyterian  ministers  had  to  forfeit  their 


COMMONWEALTH   &   RESTORATION     175 

charges  unless  they  brought  themselves  to  apply 
for  collation  by  a  bishop.  There  followed  the 
long  story  of  persecution  which  has  been  de- 
scribed as  "  the  most  pitiful,  the  most  revolting, 
and  at  the  same  time  the  sublimest  and  most 
impressive  page  in  the  national  history."  When 
we  read  the  narrative  of  the  torturings  and  the 
violent  deaths  of  those  who  remained  faithful 
to  the  Covenant  and  who  refused  to  accept 
episcopacy  and  thus  acknowledge  Charles  as 
the  head  of  the  Church,  and  when  we  contrast 
their  sufferings  with  the  untroubled  existence 
that  was  open  to  them  as  an  alternative,  we 
cannot  wonder  if  the  majority  were  ready  to 
compromise  and  purchase  peace  and  immunity 
on  easy  terms,  nor  if  many  of  the  Presbyterian 
ministers  took  advantage  of  the  Acts  of  Indul- 
gence to  regain  possession  of  their  charges. 
While  the  dragoons  were  scouring  the  moors 
and  hillsides  for  the  followers  of  Cargill, 
Cameron  and  Renwick,  and  the  heather  was 
stained  with  the  blood  of  the  martyrs,  many 
an  amiable  country  gentleman  was  peacefully 
attending  to  the  management  of  his  estates,  and 
had  most  of  his  time  free  for  the  comparatively 
arduous  pursuit  of  his  pleasures.  One  would 
never  suspect,  from  reading  the  Account  Books 
of  Sir  John  Foulis,  of  Ravelston,  that  he  lived 
through  a  time  whose  tragedies  have  stamped 
themselves  so  deeply  on  Scottish  memory.  The 


176      DOMESTIC   LIFE   IN  SCOTLAND 

same  skies,  the  same  alternations  of  rain  and 
sunshine,  saw  the  Covenanters  exiled  from 
human  society,  upheld  through  danger  and 
privation  by  dark  sayings  of  the  Hebrew  poets, 
and  stung  by  their  sufferings  to  an  exaltation 
that  was  either  prophecy  or  frenzy ;  and 
Foulis,  in  the  friendliest  good  humour,  making 
himself  popular  at  horse  races  and  penny 
weddings,  dispensing  drink-money  to  the  mid- 
wife, and  tossing  a  hansell  with  a  kind  word  to 
"  ye  muckman  that  dights  ye  close." 

Such  antitheses  could  of  course  be  drawn  in 
our  own  or  any  age.  Yet  the  contrasted  pictures 
of  the  Covenanter  and  of  the  cheerful  laird  may 
serve  to  remind  us  of  the  alternatives  that  a  man 
had  to  face  when  he  resolved  to  stand  by  the 
Covenant,  and  of  the  inducement  to  swallow 
his  qualms  and  choose  the  side  of  comfort  and 
safety. 

In  the  furnishing  of  the  times  it  is  possible  to 
trace  some  reflexion  of  the  events,  the  changes 
of  national  feeling,  and  the  social  contrasts,  of 
which  I  have  reminded  you.  Looking  back  to 
the  previous  reign  we  note  that  Charles  I  had 
been  himself  something  of  a  collector  and  a 
patron  of  the  arts,  and  his  influence  and  ex- 
ample had  had  their  effect  in  diffusing  among 
the  upper  classes  an  interest  in  the  furnishing  of 
their  homes.  But  with  his  death  and  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  Commonwealth  there  was  a 


COMMONWEALTH   &   RESTORATION     177 

marked  reaction,  under  Puritan  influence, 
against  ostentation  and  display,  and  a  general 
reversion  towards  simplicity  and  even  austerity 
in  the  whole  setting  of  domestic  life.  The 
eleven  years  of  the  Commonwealth  were  too 
short  a  period  to  bring  about  any  far-reaching 
change  in  the  development  of  furniture,  yet  all 
the  characteristic  pieces  of  furniture  which  we 
associate  with  Cromwell's  time  are  distinguished 
by  their  simple  design,  aiming  at  usefulness 
rather  than  comfort  or  ornament.  Many  of 
them  were  of  earlier  origin,  types  selected  owing 
to  their  being  naturally  suited  to  the  ascetic 
views  of  life  and  of  human  requirements  which 
guided  the  Puritan's  choice.  Thus  what  is 
known  as  the  Cromwell  chair,  a  simple  rect- 
angular chair  with  a  horizontal  panel  for  the 
shoulders  to  rest  on,  and  with  the  seat  and  panel 
covered  with  stretched  leather  nailed  to  the 
frame,  was  really  a  development  of  the  "  far- 
thingale chair,"  the  earliest  armless  form  of 
chair,  which  was  introduced  in  James  VI's 
reign  to  meet  the  necessity  of  ladies  who  found 
that  the  enormous  whalebone  farthingales,  or 
crinolines,  then  worn,  were  a  source  of  em- 
barrassment when  they  were  given  an  arm-chair 
to  sit  on.  In  Cromwell's  day  the  extremely 
narrow  seat  of  the  farthingale  chair  had  been 
extended  to  a  more  comfortable  size,  and  the 
legs  and  stretchers  were  often  turned  in  a 

12 


178      DOMESTIC  LIFE  IN  SCOTLAND 

"  knob  "  pattern,  though  the  straight  leg  was 
still  perhaps  more  usual.  On  such  chairs  it  was 
hardly  possible  to  sit  otherwise  than  bolt  up- 
right, so  that  there  was  little  temptation  to  idle 
lounging.  In  the  same  way  the  gate-legged 
tables  and  writing  bureaux  of  the  period  are 
furniture  of  a  plain  and  homely  type,  such  as 
men  who  aimed  at  sitting  lightly  to  the  world 
and  its  vanities  might  use  without  danger  of 
having  the  eye  seduced  or  the  heart  entangled. 
After  eleven  years'  experience  of  Puritan 
seventy  and  repression,  it  was  inevitable  that 
there  should  be  a  revolt  against  a  system  that 
made  little  allowance  for  the  natural  instinct 
for  beauty  and  innocent  enjoyment.  In  Scot- 
land especially,  where  the  national  struggle  had 
never  been  directed  against  monarchical  govern- 
ment, but  merely  against  interference  with 
religious  liberty,  the  restoration  of  the  Stuarts 
was  hailed  by  most  as  a  return  of  the  good  old 
times.  Something  of  these  feelings  is  crystal- 
lised in  a  very  familiar  type  of  contemporary 
furniture.  What  is  often  called  a  "  Queen 
Mary  chair,"  probably  because  of  its  associa- 
tion with  Holyrood  and  also,  perhaps,  because 
the  crown  which  is  its  characteristic  decoration 
somewhat  resembles  the  initial  "  M,"  is  typical 
of  the  Restoration  period.1  The  crown  is  no 
merely  conventional  piece  of  decoration,  but 
expressly  commemorates  the  return  of  the 

1  See  Plate  XI 1 1. 


ri.ATK  XI 1 1 


CkOWN   CHAIRS 

(<r)      PROPKRTY   OF    SIR   JOHN   STERLING    MAXWELL,    HART. 
(6)      WITH    THISTLE    DECORATION,    HOLYKOOD    PALACE     ( Ccfy  right  Of  His  Mflftlty  tilt  King ) 


COMMONWEALTH   &   RESTORATION     179 

monarchy  ;  and  in  days  when  Royalist  sym- 
pathies were  not  only  naturally  widespread  but 
were  also  paraded,  and  sometimes  perhaps  even 
simulated,  in  order  to  allay  suspicion  of  any 
Covenanting  leanings,  we  need  not  be  surprised 
that  furniture  that  testified  to  one's  loyalty  had 
a  considerable  vogue.  In  those  days,  we  are 
told,  a  solemn  face  was  apt  to  prejudice  a  man's 
reputation,  and  a  loud  laugh  was  sedulously 
cultivated  ;  so  that  Royalist  furniture,  besides 
being  fashionable,  had  a  precautionary  value 
that  appealed  to  the  discreet.  One  character- 
istic feature  of  these  chairs  is  the  carved  band 
which  connects  the  front  legs,  and  here,  as  on 
the  top  of  the  chair-back,  the  crown  appears 
between  two  S-shaped  scrolls  or,  in  more 
elaborate  examples,  between  two  flying  cherubs. 
The  liberation  from  the  severity  of  Puritan  ideas 
is  shown  by  the  disappearance  of  straight  legs 
and  stretchers,  and  the  knobbed  turning  of  the 
late  Commonwealth  develops  into  "  barley- 
sugar  "  spirals.  The  back  has  often  a  central 
panel,  either  rectangular  or  oval,  which,  like 
the  seat,  is  stretched  with  trellised  cane.  The 
introduction  of  cane  from  the  Malay  Peninsula 
about  this  time  was  no  doubt  due  to  the  East 
India  Company,  and  Samuel  Pepys  first  mentions 
it  just  after  the  Restoration,  the  entry  being  a 
rather  characteristic  one — "  This  morning,  send- 
ing the  boy  down  into  the  cellar  for  some  beer 


180 

I  followed  him  with  a  cane,  and  did  there  beat 
him  for  .  .  .  his  faults,  and  his  sister  came  to 
me  down  and  begged  for  him.  So  I  forbore.  .  . 
and  did  talk  to  Jane  how  much  I  did  love  the  boy 
for  her  sake."  The  early  cane  seats  had  a  wider 
mesh  than  is  now  usual,  and  as  they  wore  out 
they  were  often  replaced  by  padded  seats,  the 
backs  being  similarly  treated.  Other  chairs  of 
this  type  have  wavy  splats  in  the  back  instead 
of  cane.  Chairs  of  the  same  character  are  also 
found  in  France,  but  the  crown,  which  had  not 
there  the  same  significance,  is  less  prominent 
and  appears  rather  as  a  conventional  ornament. 
In  English  chairs  a  rose  often  occurs  between 
the  pair  of  scrolls  which  decorates  each  side  of 
the  back  panel,  while  at  Holyrood  there  is  a 
chair  in  which  the  thistle  is  conspicuously 
used.1  In  the  later  patterns  we  sometimes  find 
the  scroll  form  of  leg — a  form  imported  from 
France  and  destined  to  develop  into  the 
cabriole  leg  with  which  we  are  familiar  in 
eighteenth-century  furniture. 

Another  piece  of  furniture  which  is  decorated 
with  the  crown  is  the  day  bed,  generally  called 
in  Scotland  the  "  resting  "  or  "  reposing  bed." 
The  day  bed,  which  was  the  forerunner  of  the 
modern  sofa,  was  known  in  Elizabethan  times, 
and  is,  indeed,  mentioned  by  Shakespeare.  It 
was  only  after  the  Restoration,  however,  that  it 
came  into  common  domestic  use,  and  it  was  a 
1  See  Plate  XIII. 


COMMONWEALTH  &   RESTORATION     181 

considerable  addition  to  the  comfort  of  the 
hitherto  scantily  furnished  drawing-rooms  of 
the  time.  Like  the  chairs,  these  resting  beds 
stood  on  spiral  legs  connected  with  spiral 
stretchers,  and  they  had  the  carved  band 
showing  the  crown  and  scrolls  in  front.  The 
seat  was  covered  in  cane.  At  one  end  was  a 
back  intended  to  support  the  shoulders,  and 
the  inclination  of  this  back  could  be  varied  and 
fixed  by  strings  to  the  uprights.  The  back 
and  the  long  seat  were  furnished  with  bright- 
coloured  cushions,  and  altogether  the  resting 
bed  was  a  picturesque  and  characteristic  piece  of 
furniture.  It  marks,  perhaps,  the  beginning  of 
the  propensity  to  lounging  which  inspires  so 
much  of  our  modern  furniture  and  makes  the 
club  smoking-room  the  paradise  of  the  lethargic 
sprawler.  The  day  bed,  as  a  concession  to 
human  indolence,  was  accompanied  by  the 
sleeping-chair,1  a  good  example  of  which  may 
be  seen  at  Holyrood.  It  is  comfortably  up- 
holstered and  the  back  has  a  projecting  wing  at 
each  side,  so  as  to  form  corners  in  which  it  was 
possible  to  dose  with  the  head  supported  and 
sheltered  from  draughts.  Notice,  as  a  feature 
which  this  chair  shares  with  the  crown  and 
other  contemporary  types  of  chair,  the  carved 
band  which  connects  the  front  legs  some  way 
from  the  ground.  As  long  as  rushes  were  in 
use  for  covering  floors,  it  was  practically  im- 

1  See  Plate  XIV. 


182      DOMESTIC   LIFE   IN   SCOTLAND 

possible  to  keep  floors  sweet  and  clean,  and 
much  unsavoury  debris  of  one  kind  and  another 
was  apt  to  accumulate.  The  chairs  and  tables 
of  those  days  accordingly  show  a  plain  stretcher 
near  the  ground  on  which  the  feet  could  be 
supported  and  kept  clear  of  the  floor.  But 
when  rushes  gave  place  to  carpets  or  to  bare 
floors,  which  are  often  shown  in  seventeenth- 
century  prints,  the  low  stretcher  had  become 
an  encumbrance  which  prevented  people  from 
tucking  their  feet  below  their  chairs  if  they 
wished  to  do  so.  The  stretcher,  which  strength- 
ened the  chair  by  binding  the  front  legs 
together,  was  therefore  raised,  and,  being  no 
longer  exposed  to  wear  and  tear  from  human 
heels,  it  developed  into  a  decorative  feature 
and  was  enriched  with  carving.  How  elaborate 
this  carved  decoration  became  may  be  seen  in 
the  double  chair,  also  at  Holyrood,  which  bears 
a  ducal  coronet  and  a  monogram  embroidered 
on  the  back  of  each  seat.  It  appears  to  date 
from  about  1680. 

There  are  many  influences  other  than  the 
mere  reaction  against  Puritanism  which  must 
be  taken  into  account  in  tracing  the  develop- 
ment of  furniture  after  the  Restoration.  One 
of  these  is  the  re-establishment  of  the  Court, 
which  was  a  powerful  factor  in  diffusing 
extravagant  habits  of  living.  Charles  himself, 
during  his  residence  in  France  and  Holland, 


I- LATE   XIV 


SLEEPING  CHAIR,    HOLVKOOD   PALACE 
•      Copyright  oj  His  Majesty  the  King 


COMMONWEALTH  &  RESTORATION    183 

had  become  familiar  with  more  luxurious 
standards  than  those  that  had  been  coun- 
tenanced under  the  Commonwealth  ;  and,  as 
Evelyn  tells  us,  "  he  brought  in  a  politer  way  of 
living,  which  passed  to  luxury  and  intolerable 
expense."  Were  it  necessary  to  illustrate  the 
extent  of  the  reaction  at  Court  against  the 
austere  standards  of  Puritanism  one  might 
quote  Evelyn's  picture  of  the  Court  as  he  saw 
it  within  a  week  before  the  death  of  Charles  II  : 
"  I  can  never  forget  the  inexpressible  luxury 
and  profaneness,  gaming  and  all  dissoluteness, 
and  as  it  were  total  forgetfulness  of  God  (it 
being  Sunday  evening)  which  this  day  sen- 
night I  was  witness  of ;  the  King  sitting  and 
toying  with  his  concubines,  Portsmouth,  Cleve- 
land and  Mazarin,  etc.,  a  French  boy  singing 
love-songs  in  that  glorious  gallery,  while  about 
twenty  of  the  great  courtiers  and  other  dissolute 
persons  were  at  basset  round  a  large  table,  a 
bank  of  at  least  two  thousand  pounds  in  gold 
before  them  ;  upon  which  two  gentlemen  who 
were  with  me  made  reflections  with  astonish- 
ment. Six  days  after,  was  all  in  the  dust." 

In  much  of  the  furniture  of  the  period  the 
tendency  to  ostentatious  display  is  plainly 
enough  shown.  There  was  a  return  from 
Puritan  sobriety  to  the  use  of  rich  and  brilliant 
colours  in  covering  chairs,  as  well  as  in  cushions 
and  curtains.  Some  of  the  ladies  whose  names 


184      DOMESTIC   LIFE  IN  SCOTLAND 

have  just  been  quoted,  and  others  whose  names 
are  equally  familiar  in  connection  with  the 
scandals  of  the  Court,  exercised  a  distinct 
influence  in  this  direction  and  had  their  part  in 
the  movement  which  brought  into  fashion  all 
sorts  of  tinselled  fringes,  tassels  and  borders. 
The  same  tendency  was  shown  by  the  introduc- 
tion of  such  materials  as  ebony,  tortoiseshell, 
ivory  and  mother-of-pearl,  and  their  applica- 
tion to  coffers  and  cabinets  and  other  furniture. 
Charles  had  probably  some  experience  of  the 
use  of  these  eastern  substances  during  his  exile 
in  Holland  ;  and  they  were  brought  to  England 
by  the  English  East  India  Company,  which,  in- 
corporated by  Queen  Elizabeth  in  1600,  was  so 
prosperous  in  Charles  IPs  reign  that  one  share- 
holder sold  out  his  two  hundred  and  fifty  pounds 
of  stock  to  the  Royal  Society  for  seven  hundred 
and  fifty  pounds,  a  transaction  which  he  de- 
scribes as  "  extraordinary  advantageous,  by  the 
blessing  of  God."  Some  of  the  furniture  with 
ivory  or  mother-of-pearl  inlay  has  a  distinctly 
Saracenic  suggestion,  and  it  is  likely  that  this 
may  have  come  through  Portugal  as  a  result  of 
Charles's  marriage  with  Catherine  of  Bragan9a. 
To  the  disappointment  of  the  King,  his  bride's 
dowry  was  paid  in  kind  and  not  in  cash.  It 
included,  besides  sugar  and  spices,  a  consider- 
able quantity  of  furniture  which  naturally  gave 
a  turn  to  the  fashions  of  the  time.  The  Brag- 


COMMONWEALTH  &   RESTORATION     185 

an?a  "  toe  "  is  a  familiar  type  in  furniture  to 
this  day.  Even  more  important  as  an  influence 
than  the  furniture  was  the  cession  to  England, 
under  the  marriage  treaty,  of  Tangier  and 
especially  of  Bombay,  which  was  the  first  step 
towards  the  acquisition  of  her  eastern  imperial 
possessions. 

The  exotic  materials  that  have  been  mention- 
ed were  freely  employed  in  the  decoration  of  the 
cabinets  which  are  a  feature  of  the  Restoration 
period.  The  word  was  applied  not,  as  in  our 
time,  to  large  armoires  and  cupboards,  but 
particularly  to  comparatively  small  chests  of 
coffers  supported  on  stands  and  containing  a 
number  of  drawers.  Such  pieces  were  not  un- 
known in  the  sixteenth  century,  and,  indeed, 
Queen  Mary  had  one  which  is  described  as 
"  ane  cabinet  lyke  ane  coffer  coverit  with 
purpour  velvet,  quhairin  is  drawin  litil  buists 
to  keip  writtingis  in."  But  since  Mary's  day 
the  habit  of  writing  and  the  number  of  confi- 
dential documents  had  greatly  increased.  Cor- 
respondence must  have  reached  a  considerable 
volume  since  the  Union  of  the  Crowns.  In 
1635  Charles  I  had  inaugurated  the  inland  post 
"  to  run  night  and  day  between  Edinburgh  and 
London,  to  go  thither  and  come  back  again  in 
six  days,  and  to  take  with  them  all  such  letters 
as  shall  be  directed  to  any  post  town  in  or  near 
that  road."  It  was  sixty  years  later  before  the 


internal  postal  communications  in  Scotland 
were  taken  in  hand  by  the  Scottish  Parliament. 
But  the  amount  of  correspondence  was  enough 
to  explain  the  demand  for  cabinets.  The 
religious  diaries  too  of  which  we  have  spoken 
were  presumably  kept  under  lock  and  key,  for 
it  is  one  thing  for  a  man  to  humble  himself 
before  his  Maker  and  quite  another  thing  to 
tell  the  story  of  his  lapses  and  shortcomings  to 
the  peeping  Toms,  the  prying  Dicks  and  the 
gossiping  Harrys  of  his  own  household,  to  say 
nothing  of  their  feminine  counterparts.  Such 
considerations  and  the  secrets  contained  in 
letters  at  a  time  when  the  whole  kingdom  was 
so  divided  on  questions  of  religion  and  politics, 
and  when  so  many  people  for  one  reason  and 
another  changed  sides,  explain  also  the  intro- 
duction of  sliding  panels  and  secret  drawers 
whose  use  was  so  highly  developed  in  the 
cabinets  of  the  Restoration.  Of  these  the 
Lennoxlove  Cabinet1  is  a  good  type.  It  is  de- 
scribed in  an  early  inventory  as  "  The  Duchess's 
Cabinet,"  and  it  is  said  to  have  been  presented 
by  Charles  II  to  Frances  Theresa  Stuart, 
Duchess  of  Lennox,  known  as  "  la  belle  Stuart." 
The  convex  hearts  of  red  tortoise-shell  have 
thus  a  special  significance.  If  the  outside  of 
the  cabinet,  with  its  inlays  and  applications  of 
various  ornamental  materials,  is  characteristic, 
so  also  is  the  inside  with  its  many  drawers 
1  See  Plate  XV. 


PLATE  XV 


KliONY    AND    TORTOISE-SHELL   CABINET  (CHAKI.ES   II)  AT   LENNOXLOVE 
Prof  erty  of  Major  II'.  .1.  Raini 


COMMONWEALTH  &   RESTORATION     187 

and  hidden  receptacles.  The  word  "  cabinet  " 
means  of  course  a  little  house,  and  it  is  interest- 
ing to  note  the  tradition  of  architectural  treat- 
ment which  they  exemplify.  In  this  cabinet, 
as  in  so  many  others,  the  central  recess  is 
flanked  by  columns,  and  its  floor  is  inlaid  with 
black  and  white  squares,  like  the  portico  of 
some  great  building. 

An  Act  of  James  VI  "  Anent  Banqueting  and 
Apparel  "  had  forbidden  the  use  of  gold  and 
silver  lace  on  apparel,  "  embroydering  or  any 
lace  or  passements  upon  cloathes,  and  pearling 
or  ribbening  upon  ruffles,  sarkes,  napkins  and 
sockes."  It  had  even  attempted  to  perpetuate 
the  "  fashion  of  Cloathes  now  presently  used." 
But  by  Charles  IPs  time  such  restrictions,  as 
well  as  those  imposed  by  Puritanism,  had  been 
forgotten,  and  dress  was  both  gay  and  elaborate. 
What  with  silk  brocades,  lace,  silver  edgings, 
embroidered  belts  and  all  the  other  fineries  of 
the  day  it  was  found  necessary  to  devise  a  piece 
of  furniture  more  convenient  than  the  old  chest 
or  the  shelved  aumrie,  in  which  such  things 
could  be  kept  accessible,  free  from  dust  and 
arranged  in  some  kind  of  order.  The  first  step 
was  to  add  a  couple  of  drawers  side  by  side  in 
the  lower  part  of  the  chest ;  and  gradually  the 
number  of  drawers  was  increased,  till  the 
hinged  lid  gave  place  to  a  fixed  top  and  the  whole 
of  the  accommodation  was  devoted  to  drawers. 


188      DOMESTIC   LIFE   IN  SCOTLAND 

Thus  was  evolved  that  modern  and  convenient 
piece  of  bedroom  furniture  the  "  chest  of 
drawers,"  which  is  what  its  name  literally 
implies,  though  not  in  the  too  literal  sense  in 
which  an  Englishman  is  said  to  have  asked  in  a 
French  shop  for  a  poitrine  de  cakfons.  The 
chest  in  its  original  form  was  now  superseded 
and  for  practical  purposes  ceased  to  be  made. 
The  new  form  was  similar  in  idea  to  the  cabinets 
described  above,  and  in  the  earlier  specimens 
the  drawers,  or  at  least  the  upper  drawers,  were 
often  enclosed  by  a  pair  of  doors  opening  in  the 
centre. 

Those  were  days  in  which  a  great  deal  of 
liquor  was  drunk  and  drink-money  was  dis- 
tributed lavishly  to  thirsty  dependents  on  all 
sorts  of  occasions.  But  thanks  once  more  to 
the  East  India  Company  tea  and  coffee  began 
to  come  into  use  in  England  about  1660,  while 
chocolate  was  also  introduced,  and  we  find 
allusions  to  the  use  of  these  beverages  in 
Scotland  not  many  years  later.  At  first  they 
were  looked  upon  as  having  a  certain  medicinal 
virtue,  being  recommended  for  the  "  de- 
fluxions,"  but  they  soon  won  their  way  on  their 
merits  as  beverages  and  began  to  bring  about 
social  changes.  Tea  and  coffee  houses  sprang 
up,  and  there  men  foregathered  to  read  the  news 
sheets  and  to  play  cards  and  other  games  of 
chance  and  skill,  so  that  there  was  soon  an  in- 


COMMONWEALTH   &   RESTORATION     189 

creased  demand  for  small  folding  tables,  often 
made  of  walnut — a  wood  which,  being  of  more 
even  texture  than  oak,  was  a  more  satisfactory 
material  for  the  spiral  legs  favoured  by  the 
taste  of  the  time.  The  employment  of  walnut 
and  the  discovery  of  its  special  qualities  by  the 
workmen  who  handled  it  led  to  the  development 
of  a  lighter  and  more  graceful  type  of  furniture 
than  the  cumbrous  oak  furniture  of  earlier 
times,  just  as  the  introduction  of  mahogany  in 
the  following  century  led  to  further  progress 
towards  the  ideal  of  slender  and  sometimes 
rather  flimsy  elegance. 

The  introduction  of  these  folding  tables  and 
of  furniture  of  a  comparatively  light  kind,  which 
could  be  easily  moved  from  one  part  of  a  room 
to  another,  and  the  gradual  adoption  of  tea  and 
coffee,  and  many  other  small  changes  of  habits, 
served  cumulatively  to  bring  a  more  modern 
atmosphere  into  the  domestic  life  of  the  time. 
There  was  also  a  considerable  development  of 
the  taste  for  music  in  private  houses.  Young 
ladies  were  taught  to  play  the  viol  and  the 
virginals,  to  the  pride  of  their  parents  and,  let 
us  hope,  to  the  satisfaction  of  less  partial 
listeners.  The  charming  pair  of  virginals 
shown  in  Plate  XVI  is  a  good  specimen  of  the 
instruments  on  which  they  performed.  It  has 
spiral  legs  corresponding  to  those  of  the  chairs 
and  tables  of  the  time.  The  keys,  instead  of 


190      DOMESTIC   LIFE   IN   SCOTLAND 

being  faced  with  ivory,  are  of  solid  boxwood, 
which  was  the  material  used  for  that  purpose  in 
Charles  IPs  reign,  and  they  are  worn  with  the 
touch  of  slender  fingers  which  made  music 
two  hundred  and  fifty  years  ago.  The  compass 
is  only  about  four  and  a  half  octaves,  and  the 
tone  was  sweet  and  delicate,  not  powerful  and 
sonorous  like  our  modern  pianos  with  their 
massive  iron  frames  and  their  heavily  loaded 
wires  stretched  at  enormous  tension.  At  each 
end  of  the  keyboard  is  a  little  carved  figure,  and 
one  cannot  but  feel  that  this  instrument,  if  less 
efficient,  is  at  least  in  outward  form  much  more 
charming  and  sympathetic  to  the  artist  than 
the  French-polished  and  stony-hearted  looking 
monsters  which  are  its  modern  descendants. 
The  fifth,  or  central,  leg  seems  to  be  an  eigh- 
teenth century  addition  designed  to  carry  a 
lever  operated  by  a  pedal  for  the  purpose  of 
opening  and  closing  the  lid  in  order  to  increase 
or  diminish  the  volume  of  tone.  The  expression 
"  pair  of  virginals  "  does  not,  of  course,  denote 
two  instruments,  but  merely  refers  to  the  series 
of  notes,  as  in  old  times  a  rosary  was  called  a 
"  pair  of  beads,"  or  as  we  still  talk  of  a  "  pair  of 
stairs." 

One  other  change  contributed  to  the  modern 
air  of  the  houses  of  the  period — the  introduc- 
tion of  barred  grates  in  place  of  the  old  open 
fireplace.  In  the  engravings  of  Abraham  Bosse, 


PLATE  XY1 


5  o 


COMMONWEALTH  &   RESTORATION    191 

who  was  born  about  1610,  and  whose  works  are 
full  of  interest  as  pictures  of  seventeenth-cen- 
tury life,  the  fireplaces  are  open  and  fitted  with 
a  pair  of  andirons  to  support  the  fuel.  The 
early  Scottish  grate  was  called  a  chimney,  and 
it  was  fitted  with  a  pair  of  "  raxis,"  either  stand- 
ing or  lying  ;  it  had  an  iron  back  and  at  the  side 
there  was  often  fitted  a  "  gallows  "  with  crooks 
or  chains,  from  which  a  pot  could  be  hung. 
The  customary  fireside  implements  were  a 
"  porring  irne,"  or  poker,  and  a  pair  of  tongs. 
The  "  foreface,"  with  ribs,  was  introduced 
before  1660,  and  we  read  in  Lamont  of  Newton's 
Diary  in  1661  that  "  The  Lady  caused  make  a 
new  chemnay  for  the  hall  of  Lundy,  of  the 
newest  fashion  with  long  bars  of  iron  before, 
with  a  high  backe,  all  of  iron  behind."  Grates 
of  this  type  may  still  be  seen  in  Holyrood,  which 
was  restored  and  furnished  for  Charles  II  in  the 
years  following  1671,  though  those  actually  in 
use  are  reproductions  of  the  originals  still  on 
view. 

Before  passing  on  to  a  sketch  of  the  social  life 
of  the  time,  let  me  say  a  few  words  on  a  subject 
on  which,  in  my  earlier  lectures,  I  have  only 
touched  in  a  negative  sense — I  mean  the  ques- 
tion of  the  use  of  forks  at  table.  We  have  seen 
that  a  single  fork  was  occasionally  used  for 
handling  fruit,  and  that  the  luxurious  Parson  of 
Stobo  had  one  of  these  rarities  in  the  earlier  half 


192      DOMESTIC   LIFE   IN   SCOTLAND 

of  the  sixteenth  century.  In  Coryat's  Crudities, 
published  in  1611,  the  author  writes  of  the  use 
of  forks  in  cutting  meat  as  a  curious  custom 
which  he  had  seen  in  his  travels,  "  neither  doe 
I  thinke  that  any  other  nation  of  Christendome 
doth  use  it,  but  only  Italy.  .  .  .  The  reason  of 
this  their  curiosity  is,  because  the  Italian  cannot 
by  any  means  endure. to  have  his  dish  touched 
with  fingers,  seeing  all  men's  fingers  are  not 
alike  cleane."  A  character  in  Ben  Jonson's 
comedy,  The  Devil  is  an  Ass,  exclaims,  "  Forks  ? 
What  be  they  ?  "  and  receives  this  answer  : 

The  laudable  use  of  forks, 
Brought  into  custom  here,  as  they  are  in  Italy, 
To  th'  sparing  o'  napkins. 

But,  though  the  custom  would  thus  seem  to 
have  been  introduced  early  in  the  seventeenth 
century,  it  appears  to  have  died  out  both  in 
England  and  in  France.  The  explanation  may 
perhaps  be  found  in  the  fact  that  they  were 
found  useful  at  the  time  when  wide  ruffs,  worn 
round  the  neck,  made  it  difficult  to  reach  the 
mouth  with  the  hand  ;  so  that  when  ruffs 
passed  out  of  fashion  the  use  of  forks  was  dis- 
continued. In  France  the  practice  reappeared 
among  the  fashionable  and  fastidious  in  the 
latter  half  of  the  seventeenth  century,  on  the 
initiative,  it  is  said,  of  the  Due  de  Montausier  ; 
and  a  French  "  Traite  de  Civilite  "  exhorts 
well-bred  persons  "  porter  la  viande  a  la  bouche 


COMMONWEALTH   &   RESTORATION    193 

avec  sa  fourchette."  In  spite  of  this  there  is 
abundance  of  evidence  that  even  in  important 
French  houses  food  continued  to  be  lifted  with 
the  fingers,  and  it  was  apparently  only  in  the 
eighteenth  century  that  the  use  of  forks  was 
established  as  a  general  practice.  Certainly 
within  Stuart  times,  to  which  my  own  re- 
searches have  hitherto  been  confined,  I  have 
found  no  instance  of  a  supply  of  forks  for  table 
use  in  Scotland  ;  and  the  large  numbers  of 
napkins  inventoried  in  Scottish  houses  support 
the  view  that  meat  was  still  handled  as  in 
mediaeval  times.  It  may,  however,  be  noted  that 
when,  in  1669,  Charles  II  entertained  Cosimo  II, 
Duke  of  Tuscany,  knives  and  forks  were  laid 
for  the  guests,  and  there  may  have  been  houses 
where  the  practice  was  adopted  before  it 
became  a  usual  one. 

A  curious  point  about  table  knives  may  be 
added.  These,  as  early  illustrations  show,  used 
to  have  sharp  points,  as  penknives  still  have  ; 
and  sharp  points  must  have  had  many  practical 
advantages.  Why,  then,  have  our  modern 
table  knives  rounded  points  ?  The  change  took 
place  in  France  in  the  first  half  of  the  seven- 
teenth century,  when  Cardinal  Richelieu,  dis- 
gusted at  Chancellor  Seguier's  gross  habit  of 
picking  his  teeth  with  the  point  of  his  knife,  a 
habit  which  was  no  doubt  common  enough,  had 
the  points  of  his  table  knives  rounded  to  prevent 
13 


194      DOMESTIC  LIFE  IN  SCOTLAND 

the  recurrence  of  so  offensive  a  spectacle.  The 
fashion  thus  set  was  generally  adopted  ;  and  in 
dissecting  the  wing  of  a  chicken  with  a  round- 
pointed  knife  one  may  console  oneself  with  the 
reflection  that  one  suffers  vicariously  for  the 
solecism  of  a  Chancellor  of  France. 

I  suppose  there  is  no  epoch  of  English  history 
of  whose  social  and  domestic  life  we  have  such 
brilliant  and  intimate  glimpses  as  Pepys'  im- 
mortal Diary  gives  us  of  the  period  of  the 
Restoration.  In  Scotland  we  have  nothing 
comparable  to  that  sparkling  and  outspoken 
journal.  Law's  Memorials  give  many  interesting 
sidelights  on  the  ecclesiastical  and  political 
affairs  of  the  time.  Lamont,  of  Newton,  records 
with  impartial  fidelity  the  meetings  of  Fifeshire 
Presbyteries  and  the  winners  of  the  Cupar 
horse  races.  Neither  writer  has  the  English 
diarist's  genius  for  jotting  down  vividly  and 
with  unflagging  zest  the  trifling  yet  enthralling 
incidents  of  his  daily  life.  It  is  only  occasionally 
that  such  writers  are  surprised  into  an  uncon- 
ventional note,  as  when  Lamont  writes,  "  Sept. 
6,  being  Saturn's  day,  the  garner's  mother  in 
Balcarresse  was  bitten  through  the  arme  with 
a  puggy  ther,  which  did  blood  so  therafter  that 
it  could  not  be  stem'd.  .  .  .  Some  few  days 
therafter  she  dyed."  Of  all  our  diarists  of  that 
time  Lauder,  of  Fountainhall,  has  the  most  alert 
observation  and  the  wittiest  tongue.  Of  a  bad 


COMMONWEALTH  &   RESTORATION     195 

crossing  to  France  he  writes,  "  What  a  dis- 
tressed brother  I  was  upon  the  sea  neids  not 
hear  be  told.  .  .  .  Mr.  John  Kincead  and  I 
strove  who  should  have  the  bucket  first,  both 
being  equally  ready.  ...  At  every  gasp  he 
gave  he  cried  God's  mercy,  as  if  he  had  been 
to  expire  immediately."  Arrived  in  France, 
which  he  hails  as  the  land  "  of  graven  images," 
he  is  "  not  a  little  amazed  to  see  upright  pod- 
dock  stools  "  being  prepared  for  his  diet.  Of 
these  the  Scot  partakes  without  enthusiasm,  yet 
he  owns  that  "  in  eating  them  a  man  seimes  to 
be  iust  eating  of  tender  collops."  Another  ex- 
perience of  French  cookery,  in  which  the  legs 
of  a  frog  were  substituted  for  those  of  a  pullet, 
drives  him  to  exclaim,  "  Such  damnd  cheats  be 
all  the  French  !  "  He  is  far  too  canny  to  admit 
prematurely  any  good  opinion  of  those  he 
meets,  even  if  they  are  fellow  Scots.  "  The 
Mr.  of  Ogilvie  and  I  were  very  great,"  he  says  ; 
but  adds,  "  I  know  not  what  for  a  man  he 'el 
prove,  but  I  have  heard  him  talk  wery  fat  non- 
sense whiles."  He  husbands  his  expletives  to 
impart  a  sting  to  his  observations  on  men  and 
things  which  are  not  of  his  own  country.  Thus 
he  introduces  an  anecdote  of  the  patron  Saint  of 
Ireland  with  the  remark,  "  The  Irishes  hes  a 
damned  respect  for  St.  Phatrick."  If  Lauder's 
gift  of  racy  expression  had  been  transferred  to 
Foulis,  of  Ravelston,  and  had  been  devoted  to 


196      DOMESTIC   LIFE   IN   SCOTLAND 

keeping  a  journal  of  his  occupations  and  amuse- 
ments, we  might  have  had  something  like  a 
Scottish  Pepys.  But  Foulis's  doings  have  to 
be  dug  out  of  his  Account  Books.  There  we 
can  trace  a  round  of  duties  and  pleasures  that 
might  have  supplied  material  for  a  delightful 
diary  ;  how  he  went  to  Cramond  to  fish  and  to 
Lothianburn  to  hunt,  or  how  a  less  cheerful 
errand  took  him  to  Mr.  Strachan,  the  watch- 
maker in  the  Canogait,  to  have  a  new  tooth 
fitted  to  its  place  with  silk.  Leith  appears  to 
have  been  the  Elysium  frequented  by  those  who 
cultivated  sport  and  the  drama  ;  to  Leith  the 
Laird  of  Fountainhall  made  frequent  expedi- 
tions to  see  a  horse  race  or  to  play  a  round  of 
golf  ;  and  to  Leith  he  would  convey  a  party  to 
see  a  comedy — The  Spanish  Curate,  or  The 
Silent  Woman — and  would  not  forget  to  treat 
the  ladies  during  the  performance  to  cherries  or 
oranges.  These  entries  give  us  a  picture  of  a 
cheerful  Scottish  laird,  attending  to  his  estates 
and  the  upkeep  of  his  house,  a  welcome  figure 
whether  in  patronising  a  penny  wedding  or  in 
"  conveying  Lady  Kimmergem's  corps  "  ;  tak- 
ing in  hand  the  family  shopping,  buying  a  golf 
club  to  Archie,  Rudiments  to  Jonie  and  a  pair 
of  strait  sleeves  to  Lissie,  as  well  as  five  ells  of 
stringing  for  "  hangers  to  hys  own  breeches  "  ; 
and  at  the  same  time,  out  of  a  kind  heart  and  a 
comfortable  purse,  dispensing  rather  indis- 


COMMONWEALTH  &   RESTORATION    197 

criminate  alms  to  "  a  poor  irishman,  he  called 
himself  foulis,"  "  a  distrest  man  named  middle- 
toune  wanting  ye  nose  "  and  other  casual 
applicants ;  and  then,  perhaps  in  doubt  as  to 
the  wisdom  of  his  charity,  paying  an  officer 
fourteen  shillings  Scots  "  to  keep  away  ye  poor." 
If  he  has  many  a  festive  evening  and  loses  many 
a  wager  at  golf  or  cards,  he  is  willing  that  his 
family  too  should  amuse  themselves,  and  he 
leaves  two  pounds  with  his  "  douchter  Jean  to 
give  the  fidler  and  play  at  cards."  Like  that 
hero  of  song,  Captain  Wattle,  who  "  was  all  for 
love,  and  a  little  for  the  bottle,"  he  sets  small 
store  by  literature,  science,  or  the  arts.  Public 
affairs  receive  little  of  his  attention,  though 
when  the  future  James  VII  visited  Scotland  in 
pursuit  of  the  anti- Covenanter  measures,  he 
makes  it  an  excuse  for  another  jaunt  to  Leith, 
where  he  hires  a  boat  "  to  see  the  duke  of  york 
go  abord-o  " — the  entry  having  a  quasi-nautical 
turn  which  suggests  that  he  enjoyed  his  day  and 
came  home  pleasantly  exhilarated. 

A  good  deal  of  light  is  thrown  on  the  social 
habits  of  the  day  in  connection  with  births, 
marriages  and  deaths.  On  the  death  of  Sir 
John's  first  wife,  a  lad  was  sent  round  with 
intimations  sealed  in  black  to  the  houses  of  the 
neighbouring  lairds.  The  house  at  Ravelston 
was  hung  with  black  serge,  the  church  pew  was 
covered  with  the  same  material,  and  Meg, 


198      DOMESTIC   LIFE   IN   SCOTLAND 

Lissie  and  Grissie  were  provided  with  black 
"  under  pitticoats."  The  widower  himself  re- 
quires a  yard  and  a  half  of  black  looping  for  his 
hat  and  hatband,  a  pair  of  black  shoe-buckles 
and  a  mourning  sword,  while  his  horse  has  to 
be  arrayed  in  black  trappings.  The  funeral 
charges  include  the  "  dead  chist  "  and  "  sear 
cloathes,"  the  cost  of  "  embowelling  my  dear 
wife,"  and  fees  to  bellmen,  trumpeters  and  the 
cryer,  the  keepers  of  the  mortcloath,  and  the 
herald-painter  who  provided  the  hatchment 
placed  on  the  front  of  the  house  to  announce 
the  quality  of  the  dead  lady.  Within  two 
months  all  these  bills  had  been  paid,  and  before 
another  two  months  had  passed  Sir  John  seems 
to  have  forgotten  the  mother  of  his  fourteen 
children  and  is  once  more  a  bridegroom,  wear- 
ing silver  buckles  and  garters,  paying  for  an 
epithalamium  and  calling  once  more  on  the 
trumpeters,  to  play  this  time  at  his  wedding. 
Such  swift  remarriage  does  not  seem  to  have 
been  considered  disrespectful  to  the  memory  of 
the  first  wife.  A  man,  William  Lundin,  in  Fife, 
married  as  his  second  wife  Helen  Lithell,  and  we 
are  told  that  "  the  said  Helen  Lithell  was 
spoken  of  at  the  tabell  of  Lundin  one  day  att 
dinner  before  that  the  deceaset  Elspet  Adie,  his 
first  wife,  was  interred,  to  be  a  fitt  woman  for 
his  second  wife."  Apparently  he  should  have 
waited  till  a  few  days  after  the  funeral.  Fortu- 


COMMONWEALTH  &   RESTORATION    199 

nately  native  caution  prevented  many  men  from 
running  too  hastily  into  matrimony.  A  plough- 
man was  asked  by  the  Presbytery  of  Elgin  why 
he  had  changed  his  mind  after  proclamation  of 
banns,  and  gave  four  good  reasons  for  his 
having  declined  the  venture  :  "  i.  He  could 
not  get  his  parents'  consent.  2.  He  could  not 
get  his  master's  consent.  3.  The  wumman  was 
lous  fingered.  4.  They  promised  him  100 
merks  and  could  nor  wald  pay  it." 

Among  Sir  John  Foulis's  recreations,  billiards 
is  not  named,  yet  it  is  likely  enough  that  he 
may  have  known  the  game.  Though  it  is  men- 
tioned by  Spenser  and  Shakespeare,  billiards 
seems  only  to  have  been  made  fashionable  by 
Louis  XIV  in  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  and  it  is  all  the  more  remarkable  to 
find  that  there  was  "  ane  old  spoyld  bulliert 
boord  "  in  the  West  Gallery  at  Birsay  House, 
Orkney,  so  early  as  1653.  Kirk,  who  visited 
Scotland  in  1677,  mentions  the  game  as  taking 
up  part  of  his  time  at  Aberdeen.  There  were, 
of  course,  many  on  the  Crown  as  well  as  on  the 
Covenant  side  who  disapproved  of  such  recrea- 
tions as  billiards,  cards  and  horse  racing  ;  and 
an  easygoing  father  sometimes  incurred  severe 
criticism  from  his  own  straitlaced  offspring. 
It  is  plain  that  the  Earl  of  Rothes  combined 
affection  for  his  daughter  the  Countess  of 
Haddington  with  a  wholesome  dread  of  her 


200      DOMESTIC   LIFE  IN   SCOTLAND 

austere  standards  of  conduct,  as  the  following 
letter  to  his  son-in-law  will  show  : 

"  Thursday,  wan  a  cklok. 
My  Dear  Lord, 

All  that  cips  runieng  horsies  in  Scotland 
being  jeust  going  to  diner  with  me,  I  have  taym 
onlie  to  tell  you  that  Sir  Andrew  Ramsie  and 
Poso  runs  on  Satirday  by  aliuin  a  cklok,  which 
will  be  a  verie  gret  math,  and  I  beliue  much 
munie  upon  it  ;  and  on  Tyousday  bothe  the 
plet  runs,  at  which  ther  is  six  horsies  ;  and 
Mortein's  old  hors  and  mayn  runs  a  by  mathe. 
This  is  onlie  to  inform  you,  not  to  inwayt  you, 
for  I  dear  not  for  my  doghter  ;  but  if  you  cum, 
which  I  wold  du  if  I  uere  in  your  pies,  you  shall 
be  verie  velcum  to  your 

R. 

My  seruies  to  my  dear  Maig,  and  all  the  rest 
of  your  good  cumpanie. 

For  the  Earle  of  Haddingtoune — these." 

There  is  one  piece  of  furniture  which  is  often 
met  with  in  seventeenth-century  houses,  whose 
use  carries  us  beyond  the  limits  of  the  house 
itself.  This  was  the  "  kirk  stuill."  Even 
"  kirk  chairs  "  are  mentioned,  and  these  may 
have  been  of  a  folding  type  so  as  to  make  them 
easily  carried.  Usually,  however,  well-to-do 
people  had  their  own  pews  for  which  they  paid 
"  dask  maill  "  or  pew  rent,  and  it  was  only 


COMMONWEALTH  &   RESTORATION    201 

necessary  to  carry  with  them  the  cushions, 
generally  covered  in  velvet,  which  gave  a  certain 
amount  of  alleviation  while  listening  to  the 
prolonged  sermons  of  the  time.  The  use  of 
kirk  cushions  is  mentioned  as  a  new  fashion  in 
the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century  in  Mait- 
land's  Satyre  on  the  Town  Ladies  >  where  he 
says  : 

In  kirk  thai  are  not  content  of  stuillis 
The  sermon  quhen  they  sit  to  heir, 

But  caryis  cuschingis  lyike  vaine  fuillis 
And  all  for  newfangilnes  of  geir. 

In  the  seventeenth  century  many  of  the 
churches  had  still  thatched  roofs,  and  we  read 
of  some  in  country  districts  with  "  the  doors 
sodded  up  and  no  windows."  The  kirk-brod 
or  plate,  stood  at  the  door,  or  the  collection 
might  be  taken  by  ladles.  The  church-goer 
prepared  himself  at  home  by  wrapping  his 
intended  offering  in  his  "  nepeking  end/'  that 
is,  the  corner  of  his  handkerchief,  so  that  he 
could  lay  hands  upon  it  when  wanted,  and 
perhaps  to  prevent  his  putting  in  a  coin  of 
higher  value  by  mistake.  In  some  churches  the 
tradesmen  sat  above  in  the  pews  allotted  to  the 
several  trades,  the  gentlemen  sat  below,  and 
the  women  in  the  "  high  end  "  or  near  the 
pulpit.  When  the  minister  prayed  it  was 
customary  for  the  congregation  to  ;<  use  a 
hummer  ing  kind  of  lamentation  for  their  sins," 


202      DOMESTIC   LIFE   IN   SCOTLAND 

and  this  moaning  and  shuddering  must  have 
produced  a  curious  and  impressive  effect.  As 
to  the  singing,  the  custom  of  "  giving  out  the 
line  "  was  introduced  about  1640  ;  each  line 
was  chanted  in  monotone  before  the  congrega- 
tion sang  it.  Sometimes  the  effect  of  separating 
the  lines  in  this  way  rather  perplexed  the  sense. 
Thus  in  the  verse  beginning  : 

I'll  praise  the  Lord,  and  I  will  not 
Keep  silence,  but  speak  out. 

the  precentor  intoned,  in  all  solemnity,  the 
words,  "  I'll  praise  the  Lord  and  I  will  not," 
and  this  paradox  was  thereupon  adopted 
unanimously  by  the  loud-voiced  congregation. 
Taking  advantage  of  their  docility  the  unreason- 
able precentor  went  on  to  chant,  "  Keep  silence, 
but  speak  out  !  "  a  command  which  the  faithful 
flock  echoed  without  a  qualm. 

On  the  pulpit  was  fixed  a  bracket  containing 
an  hour  glass.  As  soon  as  the  preacher  had 
given  out  his  text,  the  men  put  on  their  hats, 
the  glass  was  turned  and  the  sermon  began  and 
was  seldom  over  before  the  sands  had  run  out. 
Sometimes  the  preacher  had  periods  of  "  deser- 
tion "  in  which  even  men  like  Thomas  Boston 
"  had  much  ado  to  see  out  the  glass  "  ;  and 
sometimes,  on  the  other  hand,  congregations 
had  to  get  their  ministers  restrained  from 
habitually  exceeding  the  time-limit.  Generally 


COMMONWEALTH   &   RESTORATION    203 

the  preachers  seem  to  have  taken  a  gloomy 
view  of  the  probable  fate  of  their  hearers  in 
the  next  world.  In  a  Journal  of  the  time  we 
read  of  Mr.  Rob.  Wedderburn  addressing  his 
congregation  thus  :  "  God  will  even  come  over 
the  hil  at  the  back  of  the  kirk  their,  and  cry  wt 
a  hy  voice,  Angel  of  the  church  of  Main  (moon) 
sy,  compeir  !  Then  He  answer,  Lord  behold 
thy  servant,  what  hes  thou  to  say  to  him  ?  Then 
God  wil  say,  *  Wheir  are  the  souls  thou  hest 
won  by  your  ministry  heir  thir  17  years  ?  ' 
He  no  wal  what  to  answer  to  this,  for  Sirs,  I 
cannot  promise  God  one  of  your  souls  :  yet 
lie  say,  Behold  my  own  soul  and  my  crooked 
Bessie's  (this  was  his  daughter)  ;  and  wil  not 
this  be  a  sad  matter  ?  " 

For  the  writer  of  to-day,  as  for  the  preachers 
of  forgotten  yesterdays,  the  sands  run  low  and 
time  imposes  inexorable  limits.  Were  it  per- 
missible to  view,  as  Moses  did,  the  land  which 
I  must  not  enter  and  to  look  but  a  year  or  two 
beyond  the  date  to  which  I  have  confined  my- 
self, we  should  find  a  new  Foulis  of  Ravelston, 
no  longer  wearing  his  own  hair  and  paying 
frequent  visits  to  the  barber's  to  have  it  trimmed, 
but  decked  with  a  periwig  ;  we  should  find  that 
James  Peacock  has  been  called  in  to  "  cut  and 
powder  the  bairns'  hair,"  and  that  her  ladyship 
is  carried  to  her  lodging  in  a  Sedan  chair.  Such 
changes  prelude  the  dawn  of  the  eighteenth 


204      DOMESTIC   LIFE   IN   SCOTLAND 

century,  and,  as  students  of  the  seventeenth, 
we  may  take  a  jealous  satisfaction  in  believing 
that  some  of  them  at  least  were  not  endured 
without  a  pang.  To  take  to  a  periwig  called 
for  considerable  resolution.  With  one  diarist 
the  crisis  of  indecision  and  procrastination 
lasted  for  six  months.  When  he  first  tried  on 
a  wig,  he  found  that  he  had  no  stomach  for  it, 
;<  but  that  the  paines  of  keeping  my  haire  clean 
is  so  great."  Some  months  passed,  and  he 
made  another  attempt,  but  again  put  it  off  for 
a  while.  More  months  slipped  by,  and  then, 
taking  the  desperate  plunge,  he  had  his  hair 
cut  off,  "  which  went  a  little  to  my  heart  at 
present  to  part  with  it."  He  adds  somewhat 
ruefully,  "  But  it  is  over,  and  so  I  perceive  after 
two  or  three  days  it  will  be  no  great  matter." 

In  our  study  of  Domestic  Life  in  Scotland 
we  have  had  to  consider  many  things  which  in 
themselves  are  of  little  importance — the  setting 
of  a  salt-cellar,  the  lifting  of  a  mouthful  of  food, 
the  form  of  a  table  or  chair.  Yet  such  things 
are  the  footprints  of  our  race  on  their  long 
journey  from  primitive  barbarism  to  the  usages 
and  conventions  of  a  humaner  civilisation. 
Step  by  step  man  has  risen  from  a  listless  tenure 
of  the  cave  and  forest  homes  which  he  shared 
with  the  beasts ;  generation  by  generation  he 
has  wrought  for  himself  a  home  reflecting  his 
human  desire  not  only  for  comfort  and  decency 


COMMONWEALTH  &   RESTORATION    205 

and  order,  but  for  kindly  converse  with  his 
fellows,  and  at  last  also  for  beauty  and  the 
exercise  and  refreshment  of  the  mind.  And  for 
us  the  story  of  his  progress  and  the  small  things 
and  tentative  advances  of  his  domestic  life  can 
never  be  trivial  or  insignificant. 

But  on  the  other  hand  our  survey,  in  dealing 
with  the  little  things  and  changing  fashions  of 
life  and  manners,  and  in  recalling  the  swift 
succession  of  eager  but  transient  generations, 
may — if  we  are  to  seek  for  a  closing  morality — 
fitly  enough  remind  us  also  of  the  littleness  of 
much  that  preoccupies  the  minds  of  men.  If 
the  putting  on  of  a  periwig  marks  and  sym- 
bolises the  end  of  an  era,  the  wearer  at  least 
mourns  the  loss  of  his  locks  rather  than  the 
flight  of  the  irredeemable  years.  Though  he 
clings  in  his  heart  to  old  and  familiar  ways,  the 
new  mode  is  not  to  be  resisted,  and  he  accepts 
it  with  the  best  grace  he  can.  Thus  is  human 
life  tangled  in  the  meshes  of  worldly  mutability. 
Thus,  amid  the  vagaries  of  ephemeral  fashion 
and  petty  but  perpetual  change,  do  generations 
pass  and  epochs  roll  to  their  appointed  close. 
Trifles  press  and  encroach  upon  us  ;  meanwhile 
the  morning  is  gone  ere  we  know  it,  and  evening 
already  draws  in.  Life,  with  its  romantic  offers, 
comes  and  swiftly  goes,  opportunity  flows  by 
and  is  not  to  be  won  again.  That  fair  white 
page,  on  which  we  had  vowed  but  yesterday  to 


206      DOMESTIC   LIFE  IN  SCOTLAND 

inscribe  deeds  worth  doing  and  not  to  be 
blotted  out,  is  to-day  scribbled  and  smirched 
with  the  record  of  our  inconstant  aims  and 
fitful  resolutions.  Farewell  to  all  we  had 
hoped  for,  had  counted  on,  yet  had  not  the 
wit  to  sieze  !  Little  wonder  if  it  goes  somewhat 
to  our  heart  to  part  with  it.  Yet  the  world 
goes  merrily  on.  The  virtues  we  might  have 
won  hard  in  life  are  freely  given  us  in  an 
epitaph  ;  and  those  who  follow  after  us  are 
busy  already  with  the  cakes  and  ale.  Of  all  our 
laborious  trifling,  what  remains  ?  Have  we 
added  a  single  stone  to  that  shining  Temple 
which  it  is  the  task  of  the  ages  to  uprear  ? 
Who  can  say  ?  The  issues  of  human  effort  are 
beyond  human  disposal.  Yet  if  a  man  have 
learned  wisdom,  if,  losing  all  things,  he  have 
won  the  grace  of  a  humble  spirit,  he  may  look 
back  at  the  last  on  all  he  had  hoped  and  the 
little  he  has  done,  and  may  say  without  bitter- 
ness in  his  heart,  "  It  is  over  ;  and  so  I  perceive 
after  two  or  three  days  it  will  be  no  great 
matter." 


INDEX 


ABERDEEN,  carved  screen 
and  stalls  in  King's  Col- 
lege Chapel,  76 

Agricultural  implements,  68 

Alchemy,  Alkume  (imita- 
tion gold),  27 

Ale,  in 

Alrnerie,  Aumrie,  Amre,  17, 
19,  39,  120 

Almos  (almuce),  47 

Alter  Stane  (altar  stone, 
super-altar),  49 

Amyt,  50 

Architecture,  domestic,  102 

Arming  (ermine),  47 

Armour,  16,  59,  66 

Arras,  42,  66,  67 

BABEIS     (dolls,     or     small 

figures),  131,  146 
Baith  fatt  (bath  vat — bath), 

'56 
Balfour       House,       carved 

panels  at,  79-82 
Balhuise,  balhoose  (Fr. 

bahut),  a  box  or  hutch, 

43 
Bancour   (a  tapestry  cover 

for  a  bench),  13 
Banquet,  109,  117 
Barred  grates,  190 
Basin  stand,  154-5 


Beaton,    Cardinal,   36,    78, 

80 

Beds,  30,  41,67,  159-172 
Bed  furnishings,  169 ;  Queen 

Mary's      bed      curtains, 

170-1 
Bedis,   beidis,   ane  pair   of 

(a  set  of  beads,  a  rosary), 

44.45 
Bedroom  furniture,  30,  42, 

67,  i55»  J56 
Bells,  50,  60,  154 
Belly  cheer,  58 
Bible,  family,  75,  121 
Billiards,  bullierts,  199 
Biretta,  47 
Bonet,  bonnet,  47 
Books,  bukis,  51,  121,  122 
Bow  windows,  105 
Boushtie,  buistie  (box-bed), 

161 
Boyst,    boist,    buist    (box), 

125,  185 

Bressale  (Brazil-wood),  59 
Brod  (panel,  picture,  also  a 

church    plate),    69,    123, 

201 

Bronckhorst,  Arnold, painter 

to  James  VI,  95-6 
Browdstar,  brodinster,  bru- 

soure  (embroiderer),  82-3 
Burde  (table),  13,  19,  20,  52 


207 


208      DOMESTIC  LIFE  IN  SCOTLAND 


Bureau  bed,  162 
Burgesses,  65 

CABINET,  185 

Cairweeds  (mourning 

clothes),  167 

Cane,  when  introduced, 
179 

Cannabic,  canopy,  13,  29, 
109,  156,  160,  169 

Capamre,  cop  amrie,  cup 
almrie,  17,  24 

Cardiviance,  v.  Gardeviance 

Carle  (a  fireside  candle- 
stick), 155 

Carpets,  120 

Carvit  werk  (called  also 
schorne  werk),  41,  42, 

75 

Catherine  de  Medici,  86 
Caver  (quiver  for  arrows), 

60 

Ceilings,  105 
Chains,  44 
Chairs,    13,    19,    66,   107; 

for  family  use,  108,  117 
Chalice,  30,  49 
Chalmer  of  Des,  chambra- 

deeze,  Chamber  of  Dais, 

28,  29,  30 

Chamber  pot,  43,  152 
Chandillars     (candlesticks), 

14,  18,  42 
Chest,  kist,  17,  18,  43,  155, 

187 

Chest  of  drawers,  156,  188 
Children,  131 
Chimnay  (grate,  fireplace), 

52.  W 
Chocolate,  jacolatt,  188 


Church,  33-62,  100,  102, 
201-3 

Church  property  trans- 
ferred to  Crown,  101,  102 

Clocks,  18,  60,  73,  125 

Clois,  close,  close  beds, 
1 6 1-2.  Close  rooms,  161 

Cod,  codware  (pillow, 
pillow-case,  160 

Coffee,  1 88 

Coffers,  43 

Color-de-roy  (purple),  172 

Colours  and  colour-names, 
172,  183 

Colquhoun,  Mr.  Adam, 
"  persone  of  Stobo,"  37- 
62 

Combs,  45,  125 

Constable  of  Castile,  enter- 
tained by  James  VI,  108-9 

Comptar,  counter,  22-6, 
30,  52-3,  114 

Compt-burde  (table  for  rec- 
koning), 24 

Comptarfute,  26-8 

Cooked  meats,  129 

Cop   burde,  cupboard,  23, 

52,  "4 

Cornettis  (horn-shaped 
head-dress),  168 

Costume,  8,  48,  65-6,  78, 
126-9,  l%7-  Clerical  cos- 
tume, 47 

Coursing,  60,  125 

Courtship,  139,  141 

Covenant,  covenanters,  135, 

'74 

Cramasie  (crimson),  46,  172 

Crathes  Castle,  panelled  oak 
ceiling  at,  76 


INDEX 


209 


Cromwellian  furniture,  177 
Crowattis  (cruets),  49 
Crown  on  Restoration  fur- 
niture, 178 

Crowns  of  the  Sun,  44 
Curpale  (crupper),  59 
Cuschingis    (cushions),    16, 
53,  118,  181,  201 

DALMES  (damask),  8,  47, 
152,  165,  166, 168 

Dargey  ("  Dirige  "),  45 

Darnley,  39,  165 

Dask-maill  (pew-rent),  200 

Day-bed,  v.  Resting-bed 

Dessert,  113, 116, 150.  Des- 
sert spoons,  116 

Devices  on  the  Queen  of 
Scots'  bed,  166-7 

Diaries,  diarists,  137,  194 

Diet,  no,  127,  129 

Dining-room,  105,  149 

Dogs  of  earthenware,  146 

Dornick  cloth,  14 

Dowblet,  Doublet,  46,  65, 

133 
Drawand  buird  (drawing  or 

extending  table),  107,  149 
Draw  bed  (truckle  bed),  163 
Drawing-room,  105,  117, 

*5* 

Dresser,  21,  115 

Dressing   buird    (table   for 

dressing  meat),  57-8 
Dule,  duill  (mourning),  167 
Dunblane  Cathedral,  carved 

stalls,  76 

EAST  INDIA  Co.,  179,  184, 
188 


Earthenware,  113,  116,  145 

Ebony,  184 

Elizabeth,   Queen,   86,  89, 

93,  94 

Embroidery,  v.  Needlework 
Ethie  Castle,  carved  doors 
at,  78 

FALSE  TOOTH,  196 
Fannale,  fannon  (maniple), 

50 

Fans,  73 

Farthingale  chairs,  177 
Feudalism,  decay  of,  100 
Fire  irons,  58,  149,  150,  191 
Floors,  strewn  with  rushes 

or  grass,  16,  21,  182 
Foirfac,     foreface     (barred 

front  of  a  grate),  191 
Forks,  15,  55,  150,  191-3 
Foulis,  Sir  John,  of  Ravel- 

ston,  195,  203 
Four-poster  beds,  160,  163, 

164-6 
Freinyes,  freinzes  (fringes), 

49,  166,  168,  184 
Futegang  (a  long  stool  or 

step  placed  beside  a  bed), 
30,67 

GALLOWS  (an  arm  over  the 
fire  to  support  a  pot),  191 
Games,  119,  125,  131 
Gardens,  120,  127,  169 
Gardiviance,    Gardeviatt 

(garde-viande),  24,  43 
Gaudeis  (jewelled   orna- 
ments), 44 

Gentlemen  (men-servants), 
148 


210      DOMESTIC  LIFE  IN   SCOTLAND 


Gingaline  (ginger  coloured), 

172 
Glass-making  in  Scotland, 

144 

Glass  vessels,  74, 113, 144-5 
Glenfalloch,  Laird  of,  133 
Gold-mining    in    Scotland, 

95-6 
Golf,  119 
Gridaline  (Fr.  gris  de  tin),  a 

pinkish-grey  colour,  172 
Gries  (stages  or  steps),  115 
Growgrane,  grogram  (Fr. 

gros  grain],  172 

HALL,  13-28,  105-6,  148-9 
Haly  Croce  (Holy  Cross),  44 
Hand-bell,  154 
Handkerchiefs,  157,  201 
Handling  food,  15,  191-3 
Hangers   (braces),    196,   v. 

also  Hinger 
Heads,  covered  at  meals,  14, 

109,  no,  114 

Head-dresses,  14,  128,  168 
Heraldic  decoration,  74,  76, 

80,  82,  88,  171,  198 
Hilliard,  Nicholas,  93-6 
Hinger,  hanger  (a  hanging, 

also  a  pendant),  66 
Hogtoun  (Fr.  haquetori) 
Hois,  hose,  stockings,  3,  46, 

65,  128 
Horsehouse  (cloth  trappings 

for  a  horse),  59 
Horse-racing,  194,  196,  200 
Hour-glass,  125,  202 

INCARNATT  (scarlet),  171 


Indana  nootschellis  (cocoa- 
nut  shells),  154 

Indented  (inlaid),  115 

Inglis  green  (an  English 
cloth  for  table-covers),  20 

Inland    post    (inaugurated 

i635)>  185 

Inns  in  Scotland,  164 
Irnes  (irons,  metal  mount- 
ings), 46,  48 

KAISSIT  (cased  or  enclosed 

with  wood),  1 6 1-2 
Keiking  glass  (hand  mirror), 

v.  Mirror 
Kirk  stule,  200 
Kist,  chest,  q.v. 
Kitchen,  57-8,  147 
Knaiff  (basin  stand),  155 
Knives,  table,  15,  55,  193 
Knok,  60,  73,  v.  Clock 
Knop    sek    (sack    of   flock, 
used  as  a  mattress),  159 

LAME  (loam,  earthenware), 
113,  116,  146 

Lament  of  Newton,  194 

Langsaddyll  (a  settle),  18, 
42,  66 

Lauder  of  Fountainhall, 
194 

Laver  (water-jug),  13,  15, 
112 

Lavmer,  Laumer,  Lamber 
(old  form  of  Amber) 

Law's  Memorials,  194 

Laych-rynnand  (low  run- 
ning) bed,  163 

Leather  goods,  144 


INDEX 


211 


Lennoxlove  cabinet,  186 
Letacamp,  liticamp   (lit  de 
campy    a    portable    bed), 

i59»  i?i 
Lettermeitt,  latermeat 

(guard-room  or  servants' 

hall),  155 
Lettron  (Fr.  lutrin,  lectern 

or  reading  desk),  18,  80 
Line,  giving  out  the,  202 
London,      furniture      and 

fashions  from,  147 
Lounging,  178,  181 
Lyar  (a  rug  or  carpet,  cf. 

Hingar),  16 

MAILL  (trunk),  43 
Mappamounde  (Map  of  the 

world),  122 
Manse  of  Stobo,  39 
Mantle  (for  a  bed),  41 
Marriages,  198-9 
Mary  Queen  of   Scots,  39, 

86,87,88,89,91,92,165, 

166,  168,  169 
Mats,  1 20 

Medical  counsels,  129 
Meir,  mare,  3 
Meit-amrie,  metamre,  meat 

aumrie,  17,  24,  53 
Mess  buke  (missal),  50 
Mirror,  67,  72-3,  126,  155 
Montrose,     carved     panels 

from,  77 
Morton,  Earl  of,  needlework 

hangings,  91-97 
Mother-of-pearl,  184 
Mourning,  167-9,  J9^ 
Mourning  beds,  167-9 
Music,  16,  123,  127,  189 


NEEDLEWORK,  9,  82-97,  127 
Nepeking  (napkin,  handker- 
chief), 201 

Nycht  courche  (nightcap), 
41.  Nycht  hair  gear,  41 

OAT  cakes,  1 1 1 

Oralag  (Fr.  horloge),  clock, 
18 

Orasoun  buke  (prayer  book, 
Book  of  Hours),  50-1 

Oratour  (oratory),  49 

Outschorne  (carved  in  re- 
lief), 54 

Over-eating,  129 

PAINTING  in  Scotland,  69- 
71,  122-3.  Painted 
Cloths,  69-70 

Panelled  rooms,  84.  Carved 
panels,  76-82 

Parasol,  73 

Parelling  (wall  hanging),  22, 
1 06 

Parrok  (parrot),  44 

Peerman  (fireside  candle- 
stick), 155 

Periwig,  157,  203-5 

Petit  point,  85,  86,  89 

Pewter  dishes  and  vessels, 

15.  "2 

Philiamort,  phildemort, 
(dead  leaf  colour,  Fr. 
feuilk  mort),  172 

Piggis,  stoneware  bottles,  58 

Pinalds  (an  unknown  musi- 
cal instrument),  124 

Pirnit  (woven),  47 

Pitsligo  Church,  carved  gal- 
lery in,  76 


212      DOMESTIC  LIFE   IN  SCOTLAND 


Pladdis  (plaids),  41 

Plastered  walls,  120 

Plate,  display  of,  17,  53-57, 
66,  109,  114,  115 

Plouart,  Charles,  embroi- 
derer to  Mary  Queen  of 
Scots,  86,  87 

Porring  irnes  (thrusting 
irons,  pokers),  191 

Portugal  ducats,  44,  45 

Powdered  hair,  203 

Propound  (propose),  139-40 

Puggy  (monkey),  194 

Punzeoun  (a  measure  of 
cloth),  45 

Puritan  austerity,  137-8, 
143,  178,  179,  183 

QUHINGER,  47 

RAIS  cuppillis  (race  couples), 

60 

Raxis  (andirons),  191 
Recreations,  119,  125,  131 
Reformation,  34,  100 
Rehoboam,      needlework 

panels,  89-91 
Renaissance,  29,  30,  34,  35, 

100 
Resting  bed  (Fr.  lit  de  repos, 

day  bed),  152,  180-1 
Restoration,  174,  178,  183 
Romantic  revival,  12 
Roundel      burdes      (round 

tables),  107-8 
Rubber    (a    brush,    also    a 

cask),  43 

Rufe  (canopy),  29,  160 
Ruffs,  influence  on  use  of 

forks,  192 


Rugs,  1 20 

SAFER  (sapphire),  44 
Saints,  carved  figures  of,  17, 

68,70 
Saltfatt    (salt    vat,    or    salt 

cellar),  14-15,55,66,113, 

116, 150 
Saucers,    salsaris,     Indian, 

jfS4 

Schryne  (chest  or  box),  43, 

67 
Scotland,    poverty    of,    2 ; 

unsettled    conditions,   3 ; 

timber  supplies,  4  ;    early 

exports  and  imports,  7-11 
Sedan  chairs,  203 
Serviets,  servitts,  serviettis, 

16,  66,  193 
Shoes,  46,  128 
Shoeing-horn,  74,  125 
Shuttles,  schottillis  (drawers 

or  boxes),  156 
Sile,  sillour  (ceil,  ceiling), 

75.  105 
Silver,  17,  53-7 

Sleeping  chairs,  181 
Sparwort  (canopy  of  a  bed 

or  cradle),  29 
Sponge  (sometimes  used  in 

the  sense  of  a  brush),  43, 

67,  125,  154 
Standard    (a    stand),     153, 

155 
Stand  bed  (a  bed  supported 

on  legs),  159 
Steikit  (stitched),  120 
Stools,  53,   108,   109,   150, 

152 
Surplait  (surplice),  47 


INDEX 


213 


TABLE,  13,  14,  17,  19,  66, 
105-9,  "4>  H9>  I56» 
178 

Table  manners,  14, 16, 108- 
12,  114,  191-4 

Tafil,  taffle  (a  small  table), 
113,  118-9 

Talphetie  (taffetas),  169 

Tanning,  144 

Tapestry,  13,  42,  66,  68,  84, 
90,  149,  160 

Tea,  1 88 

Thistle,  as  Scottish  emblem, 
83,  87,  91,  180 

Threave  Castle,  carved  wood 
from,  78-9 

Timber,  scarcity  of,  4-5 

Toilet  accessories,  43,  67 

Tortoise-shell,  184 

Towels,  15,  67 

Towns,  increasing  import- 
ance of,  101,  104 

Tree-en,  trein  (made  of 
tree,  wooden),  15,21, 112, 

J4S 

Trestles,  19,  52,  106 
Truckle  beds,  163 
Tumblers,  151 
Tubacco  (tobacco),  125 


UNION  of  the  Crowns  (1603) 

103 
Upholstered  furniture,  118, 

152,  181 
Usury,  56,  143 

VENICE  Sponges,  154 
Vestments,  47,  50,  84 
Virginals,  124,  189-90 
Voyages,  books  of,  122 

WALNUT  (introduced  about 

1600),  108 
Wallpapers,  158 
Warming-pans,  125 
Washing,  13,  15,  109,  114, 

J56»  157 
Water-pot  (chamber-pot)  ,43 

Weir,  war,  3 

Weluot,  velvet,  46,  48,  128, 
165,  167,  168,  170,  171 

Weschel  almerie,  57 

Wilecoat,  wyliecoat  (waist- 
coat), 46,  126 

Women,  14,  85,  119,  126- 
129,  147,  156 

Wood-carving,  75-82 

Wrytting    standart    (desk), 

'53 


Printed  in  Great  Britain  at 

The  Mayflower  Press,  Plymouth, 

William  Brendon  &  Son,  Ltd. 


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